KATS Discovers 4 New Technologies
- Technologies eliminate impure articles from gold and platinum

The Korea Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) said recently that it is working to turn its technology for eliminating impure articles from gold and platinum used in fuel batteries, aviation space industry, and semiconductor into international standards.
KATS under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy(MOCIE) said Oct. 28 that it proposed to the International Standard Organization (ISO) turning its four technologies for detecting and eliminating impure articles from pure gold and platinum to the nano levels into international standards.
The newly developed analysis technology relies on high-tech analysis equipment to detect micro impure articles without the loss of the precious metals unlike with existing technology. KATS officials said they are optimistic that advanced countries would accept the new technology.
The specifications of four technologies proposed to the ISO are the determination of trace impurities in gold by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry or atomic absorption spectrometry with matrix extraction method using sulfuric acid, the determination of trace impurities in high purity gold by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry or atomic absorption spectrometry with the matrix extraction method of heating, the determination of trace-elements content by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric analysis and the determination of trace-elements content by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric analysis.
The new technologies could be applied to the development of gold bonding wire, required for the production of semiconductor chips and sputtering targets, a part needed for semiconductor and display industries, making Korea, a strong competitive country in the semiconductor industry in the world, now that it has an analysis technology for high-grade precious metals.
Kim Ik-soo, head of the material and parts standards section of KATS, said demand for previous metals has been rising with the development of semiconductor and other high-tech industries, requiring high purity and density. They need a high-degree of analytical technology to boost purity and density. He said, "Korea now would be able to work shoulder-to-shoulder with advanced countries as the first country to develop and propose international standards for its analytical technologies. Korea now would be able to participate in a competition to acquire a high-density analytical technology".
For reference, with the development of domestic precious metal related industries, around 90 percent of required precious metals are being procured from domestic firms, and their export demand has also been rising. The total domestic demand for precious metals registered 1.2 trillion won in 2002 with 900 billion won coming from overseas.
Section chief Kim said Korea would be able to play a leading role in the precious metal evaluation technology international standards, which has been dominated by advanced countries like the United States, Japan and Australia, now that Korea has proposed international standardization of its four precious metal technologies.
He said Korea would continuously work toward developing brand new analytical technology so that it may be able to strengthen Korean standard specifications and expand its proposal for international standardization. nw