The semiconductor industry has emerged as an essential foundation for advanced industries and a core element of national competitiveness and economic security. Amidst this, voices from the industry calling for the establishment of a Korean-style semiconductor ecosystem were heard at a policy forum aimed at preparing for the future of the semiconductor sector.

On the 13th, a policy forum on the future outlook of the Korean semiconductor industry was held in the 3rd Seminar Room of the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Yeouido. At this event hosted by the National Assembly ICT Convergence Forum, industry experts discussed domestic and international semiconductor industry trends as well as measures to foster the industry.

■ Must prepare for the restructuring of the US-centric semiconductor market

In her opening remarks, Rep. Cho Myung-hee of the People Power Party emphasized, “Support for semiconductor R&D accounts for only 2.7% of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s total R&D budget of approximately 5.5 trillion won this year,” adding, “Securing future growth engines in preparation for advanced industries is urgent, and fostering talent in the semiconductor field is a key task.”

Kim Hyung-joon, Head of the Next-Generation Intelligent Semiconductor Business Group, delivered a presentation on "Domestic and International Semiconductor Trends and Challenges for the Korean Semiconductor Industry." He focused his remarks on domestic challenges and other issues.

Director Kim, who is concerned that Korea's dominance in the DRAM market will fall to 5% by 2035, predicted, "Micron's technological capabilities are significant, and the DRAM market will be restructured around the U.S." A significant amount of investment in the semiconductor industry is already concentrated in the United States, and this is becoming visible through the announcement of investment plans by various global semiconductor manufacturers such as Samsung, Intel, and TSMC.

The concern is that the United States could suck in the semiconductor manufacturing industry like a black hole amidst trends such as the internalization of national supply chains, deepening decoupling of the U.S. and Chinese semiconductor industries, intensified competition in semiconductor processes and technologies, and the restructuring of supply chains centered on alliances, driven by the formation of the U.S.-led Chip 4 Alliance and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).

Although the Korean semiconductor industry has historically had high sales, it was only recently that its R&D investment ratio reached 8.1% of sales. Previously, it was lower than this. The United States is more than double at 16.9%, while China is at 12.7%, and Japan and Taiwan are in the 11% range, which raises concerns about Korea's long-term maintenance of leadership.

Director Kim pointed out regarding semiconductor R&D investment that “government support accounts for only 7.4%, and interest and support for the semiconductor industry, which is a core industry of the nation, have been neglected simply because sales are good.”

Director Kim cited the development of AI semiconductors to expand the market share of fabless companies, securing a super-gap in memory technology, advancing foundry miniaturization technology, securing advanced packaging technology, and fostering specialized semiconductor personnel as key tasks, and suggested establishing a national semiconductor ecosystem.

■ “System semiconductors haven’t improved even after 10 years”
Professor Lee Yun-sik of UNIST emphasized the need to foster system semiconductors within the semiconductor industry ecosystem. In his presentation, he explained the success models and entry of fabless companies into the top revenue brackets amidst the remarkable growth of Taiwanese semiconductor firms, and suggested establishing a Korean-style ecosystem for domestic fabless companies.

Professor Lee lamented, “Ten years ago, Korea also tried to build a fabless ecosystem led by the government, but while Taiwan has achieved growth, Korea seems to have actually worsened in terms of funding, R&D costs, and manpower without any improvement.” He went on to express the opinion that the growth of fabless companies must be accompanied by cooperation from large corporations and the investment of large capital.

While Taiwan's fabless success factors include strengths in price and profit margins, it is difficult for Korea to benchmark everything, such as labor-management structure and labor cost structure. Accordingly, Professor Lee emphasized, "It is necessary to establish a Korean-style ecosystem by modeling Taiwan's success factors."

In addition, while it is encouraging that there is a focus on training semiconductor personnel and that policies are being actively promoted, it was mentioned that there are numerous challenges to be addressed, such as the lack of unified textbooks and curricula across institutions, the training of supply personnel for each value chain sector including fabless, foundry, and packaging, and the mismatch in expectations between labor and management regarding master's degree-level personnel.

It was suggested that detailed curriculums for each node are needed, ranging from advanced nodes to processes of 100 nanometers or more, and that incentives for small and medium-sized fabless companies must be provided to address the preference of master's degree holders for large corporations.

Meanwhile, at the panel discussion held on this day, chaired by Professor Emeritus Cho Joong-hoe of Incheon National University, Kang Sa-yoon, President of the Korea Microelectronics and Packaging Society, Lee Myung-hee, CEO of Sapien Semiconductor, and Choi Woo-hyuk, Head of the Semiconductor and Display Division at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, participated as panelists to share current issues in the semiconductor industry.