MKE Eager to Localize Equipment Tech for Emerging Industries

Sets target of raising the localization rate of Korean technology for new growth engine industries to 50 percent by 2013

The Korea LED (light-emitting diode) industry has lately seen extensive growth, but Korea depends fully on foreign companies for importing the equipment necessary for the production of LED materials. Samsung Electronics, LG Display and other Korean companies turn to Japan for key equipment and devices for producing semiconductors and display products.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) reported to the 20th Government Crisis Management Conference held at the Gwacheon Government Complex on Sept. 26 a package of comprehensive support measures to advance the localization of equipment technology in the top eight new growth engine industries, including semiconductor, display, LED, photovoltaic energy, bio/medical and broadcasting, with a view of enhancing their competiveness.
Huh Nam-yong, director of the Growth Engine Policy Division at the MKE said, “The global emerging industry equipment market is predicted to grow to $574.5 billion by the year 2018 with an average annual growth rate of 5.9 percent in the next decade due to the emergence of such issues as energy and environmental problems.”However, a few multinational corporations have an upper hand in securing original technologies. Korea has a mere 3.4 percent stake in the market since the nation depends on key equipment imports and it is mostly engaged in manufacturing midlevel products, he said.
The MKE decided to initially focus on the development of 20 to 30 nm semiconductor fabrication equipment technology, Generation-11 LCD (liquid crystal display) equipment technology and Generation-5.5 OLED (organic light-emitting diode) manufacturing equipment technology among its new growth engine equipment pieces. The ministry also decided to work on research on 107 strategic products, including Generation-3 genomic analysis equipment in the bio/medical area and 3D broadcasting cameras in the broadcasting field.
The MKE aims at elevating the localization rate of Korean equipment technology for new growth engine industries to 50 percent by the year 2013.
Korean companies plan to push ahead with joint R&D projects with such prestigious U.S. universities as Stanford University and UC Berkeley as part of efforts to secure original technologies.
Earlier, the MKE announced a plan to invest 50 billion won in R&D outlays over three years until 2011 with the goal of raising the rate of localizing light-emitting diode (LED) equipment technology to 40 percent.
A ministry official said, “These days, the television back light unit (BLU) market is expanding due to a surge in the demand for LED, and Korean companies’ facility investments are forecast to jump to 3 trillion won by 2012. But the Korean LED equipment industry is still in its infancy, as Korea depends on Veeco of the United States and Axitron of Germany for importing the Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) equipment, key equipment for depositing thin layers of atoms onto a semiconductor wafer.”
The MKE plans to develop LED equipment with its own technology and foster the LED equipment and parts industries in a bid to secure a competitive edge in the prices of LED products, Lee said.
These and other steps were contained in a comprehensive plan on the development of LED equipment, which was unveiled by the MKE on July 16 during a ceremony to declare co-prosperity among LED equipment manufacturers and client companies.
The comprehensive plan calls for the commercialization of MOCVD for the production of 6-inch EPI wafers by 2011 and the development of prototype MOCVD equipment for the production of 8-inch wafers by 2012. The E-beam process will also be automated together with the MOCVD project. The government also plans to raise the die bonder tolerance number per second in the packing process as well as develop high-speed testers. nw

Minister of Strategy and Finance Yoon Jeung-hyun, Minister of Knowledge Economy Lee Youn-ho and other ministers attend the 20th Government Crisis Management Conference at the Gwacheon Government Complex on Sept. 26.