Korea: The Heat is On

Hordon Kim, Contributing Editor -- Semiconductor International, 2/1/2000

Samsung Valley

Samsung's extensive plans to construct Samsung Valley are taking shape as it spurs construction of a new 1M-square-meter semiconductor production complex in Hwasung, near its Kiheung headquarters in Korea. Samsung's Kiheung complex covers 1.3M square meters. Samsung Semiconductor Business President and Chief Executive Officer Y.W. Lee said, "Our technological focus aims to the development of 0.10 µm design rule by 2001." To this end, the memory chip giant will expand its research staff by 400 people with a total of $2.2B invested in new facilities. Next year's R&D budget is set at $600M. As much as $1.8B will be invested in the Line 10 of the second complex by the first quarter of 2001, dedicated to production of 128Mb, 256Mb and Rambus DRAMs. The first-phase construction will be completed by the third quarter of 2000, when monthly wafer starts will total 16,000. Full capacity after completion by the first quarter of next year will be 320,000, 8-in. wafers. The second complex will accommodate as many as eight production lines, enabling Samsung to accommodate both a DRAM/SRAM sector and a flash memory sector. Moreover, they will feature a production-switching system, flexibly turning out memory and non-memory chips.

Like Intel's Camino, Samsung has added speed to its list of priorities, along side size of memory. Samsung has developed the 288Mb Direct Rambus DRAMs, a replacement to synchronous DRAMs. Using a 0.17 µm technology, Samsung came out with single chips and modules in micro MGA packages. It hopes the Rambus DRAM market will grow in earnest this year, to volumes of $3B, as major PC makers such as Dell, Compaq, HP and IBM begin using the Rambus DRAMs.

Hyundai update

After a rosy Hyundai-LG honeymoon, Hyundai MicroElectronics has cleared up production processes and R&D priorities. Hyundai is making profits and technology advancement a priority. It plans to invest $1.8B into facilities and equipment and $535M into R&D this year. Hyundai's second-generation 256Mb synchronous DRAMs based on a 0.15 µm technology are 40% smaller than the first-generation version with 70% improvement in performance. As most of its processes are consistent with the first-generation version, no additional investments are needed for mass production.

Moreover, Hyundai developed inner MPS cylinder (IMC) technology for higher chip reliability resulting from improved cell structures. As the IMC technology is compatible with 64Mb DRAM equipment, Hyundai is hopeful of having a price edge. Volume production was implemented this year. The company anticipates worldwide market demands for the second-generation 256Mb synchronous DRAMs will reach 70M pieces this year.

As with Samsung, Hyundai looks forward to increasing market demand for Rambus DRAMs. Anticipating a Rambus DRAM market share up to half the total DRAM market in 2002, the company is ready to turn out more than 3M Rambus DRAMs per month in the near future. Hyundai has gained a Stock Warrant to obtain Rambus stocks at one-ninth the market price because its Rambus DRAMs were given a high reliability. Hyundai also has the option of buying Rambus' 30,000 stocks at $10 per share and another Stock Warrant of $10 per stock for 70,000 stocks if it sells 10M Rambus DRAMs. Rambus develops and licenses high-performance chip-to-chip interface technologies.

Flash memory chips

Riding on an IT boom, Korean companies began a drive to flash memory chips, which are forecast to emerge as the second largest sector of the memory chip market this year. As Japanese memory chip makers quickly move from DRAMs to flash memory, Samsung and Hyundai also sped up a shift to this sector in a bid to occupy a place in this rising market. With mushrooming applications, it is predicted the NAND-type flash memory chips will reach a record-high growth rate of 70% over the next three years.

Samsung, which sold $200M worth of NAND-type flash memory chips last year, grabbing 40% of the market share, expects to double sales this year. It recently switched one memory production line to a flash memory/SRAM-only line. Moreover, last year's development of 1Gb NAND-type chips using 0.15 µm technology enables it to enter the market six months ahead of schedule. Additionally, Samsung is heavily investing in NOR-type flash memory chips in an attempt to boost flash memory chip sales to $800M in 2001.

Hyundai's flash memory business is likely to record a four-fold increase this year with sales of $150M. Hyundai hopes to jump to number three in the flash memory sector by 2004. Low-capacity flash memory chips for cellular phones and set-top boxes are its mainstay. However, Hyundai's aggressive drive added a 16Mb version to the lineup this year, and a 32Mb version will be produced at the end of the year. Plans also are in the pipeline to employ 0.25 µm technologies to increase productivity, starting in the second half of this year.

Drive into the non-memory sector

With Alpha CPU chips getting considerable attention, Samsung is poised to promote system-on-chip (SOC), CDMA and telecom-related chips. Samsung is in step with Korean government policies to promote the non-memory chip business. The Ministry of Industry and Materials funds 19,000 non-memory chip engineers until 2003 with an investment of $16.5M. Samsung supports some 60 local ASIC developers by offering a foundry service as part of its "Wafer Pool System." Efforts to catch up with semiconductor giant Intel have motivated Samsung to form a cooperation agreement with AMD to develop Alpha processor chip sets as a step into the one-chip market combining CPU and chip sets. For Samsung, reducing time and the cost of chip set development is critical.

Since Samsung Electronics sold off its Power Device Division last year to Fairchild, it has restructured operations around value-added products, including the System LSI division. System LSI sales totaled about $1.1B last year, up more than 40 percent from 1998. Targeting annual sales of $4B by 2005, Samsung is concentrating resources on developing sophisticated, value-added ICs for digital TVs, IMT-2000 hardware, printers and LCD monitors. The world's largest maker of TFT LCDs, Samsung also is well positioned to maintain its lead. "We expect to obtain at least 30% of the LCD driver IC market in the world by 2001," commented Steve Ahn, director of LCD Driver IC Team, System LSI Division. According to Ahn, market demands for LCD driver ICs will grow to $2.1B by 2003.

Samsung's latest developments include SOCs. A combination of DSP and MCU into a single-chip solution, they are applied specially to MP3 players. In addition to adding to the miniaturization and light weight of MP3 players, they also improve operation time by 27% due to low power consumption.

The considerable involvement in the non-memory business has led to the birth of an Internet-based "e-voice" system due out this month. Featuring easy access to its new products on-line, it aims to promote the non-memory chip business. Non-memory chip clients can enjoy the e-voice system, learning the progress of ordered products on a real-time basis. This innovative e-voice system is expected to reduce costs by $5.5M.

Hyundai has launched a "multi-chip" service aimed to help aid semiconductor design companies by supplying them with pilot samples for 0.25 µm devices. Thus far, it has offered the service for 0.35 µm devices. Citing availability of 0.18 µm devices during the second half of this year, managing director Hur Dam explained, "The multi-chip service will be attributable to the promotion of our ASIC, COT/foundry business for the sake of both us and clients. Moreover, it will help beef up a sales volume of system ICs to $2B in 2003."

LG Electronics recently secured Vestigial Side Band (VSB) transmission technology, improving ghost effects (bad receptions) and realizing the integration ratio of chips by more than 50%. The functional VSB chips will be mass-produced during the first half of this year, and the company plans to turn out 50M chips in the next four years, capturing 40% of the VSB chip market. One of its notable non-memory chip achievements is the shipment of VSB receiver chips to Sharp. As much as $1M worth of exports are scheduled this year, with some 300,000 units sold for digital TVs available in the United States.

What's new?

LG group is still involved in semiconductors despite having sold LG Semicon to Hyundai Electronics Industries last year. LG Corporate Institute of Technology (LCIT) recently developed a single-chip solution and software to handle digital TV signals. Supporting HD and SD modes of digital TVs, they will be mass-produced during the first half of this year for export to Japan and Taiwan. Currently LG group sells the HD480I, which supports ATSC specifications, enabling analog TVs and monitors to view digital TV programs.

The year 2000 is likely to see the opening of a new age for foundry services. The LCIT and Electronics & Technology Research Institute (ETRI) are prepared to launch foundry services in earnest this year. Moreover, they will share intellectual properties and semiconductor designs with module developers, stimulating the non-memory business.

The LCIT has set up fabrication, assembly and measuring equipment for GaAs MESFET, MEMT, pin-diode RF ICs and other devices, with the foundry service, scheduled to begin in March. The same services by the ETRI and Woojin Semiconductor will mainly be for 4-in. GaAs wafers; Optel Semiconductor prepares for-6 in. GaAs wafers.

Anam Semiconductor, once the largest semiconductor packaging company in the world, is in the process of becoming a foundry specialist by selling its semiconductor packaging/test factories to Amkor Technology Inc. (ATI). Its first disposal was made last year to ATI, and the sale of three more factories to ATI will follow. ATI will invest $500M to $600M, but will not touch Anam's foundry service line.

In another move, Tamul Multimedia transfers its MP3 decoding technology to Sanyo Electric. The sale of non-memory semiconductor technology opens a new chapter for a Korean company. Tamul will receive more than $6M worth of royalties over the next five years.

A sharp edge on non-memory chip design resulted in the development of 32-bit microprocessors used for digital TV chip sets by Asia Design. The world's first development of the EISC (Extendible Instruction Set Computer) kind, the 32-bit microprocessors feature a combination of RISC- and CISC-based microprocessors, on high-density integration chips.

Finally, Hyundai's technological accomplishments include the development of a capacitor production process technology using Tantalum Nitric Acid (TaON) film. The core technology for the next-generation memory element is expected to influence the success of high-volume production in applying the narrow width technology of less than 0.18 µm, beyond 256Mb DRAMs. Featuring a simple production process, the TaON will save production costs by more than 30%.

Maintaining their edge in memory devices, expanding in the non-memory arena and entering the realm of foundries, for Korean companies the heat is on. 

Optel Semiconductor	www.optel.co.kr
ETRI	www.etri.re.kr
Samsung Electronics	www.samsungelectronics.com
Hyundai MicroElectronics	www.hei.co.kr
LG Corporate Institute of Technology	www.lgcit.com
Asia Design	www.adc.co.kr
Tamul Multimedia	www.tamulsite.com
Figure 1. As a replacement to synchronous DRAMs, Korean companies are investing in Rambus DRAMs, like this 288Mb device. (Source: Samsung)   Figure 2. Korea is beginning a drive to flash memory chips (1Gb shown), which is emerging as the second largest sector of memory devices. (Source: Samsung)