Two semiconductor projects, including the 'Leading Technology Development Project for Advanced Semiconductor Packaging' and the 'K-Cloud Technology Development Project using AI Semiconductors,' have passed the preliminary feasibility study, accelerating semiconductor research and development.

The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho) held the '5th National R&D Project Evaluation Steering Committee Meeting for 2024' on the 26th, presided over by Ryu Kwang-jun, Head of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters.

The committee deliberated and approved the results of the investigation for two projects subject to the 3rd National Research and Development Project preliminary feasibility study in 2023.

First, the 'Leading Technology Development Project for Advanced Semiconductor Packaging' aims to overcome the limitations of semiconductor integration and secure a competitive technological advantage within the global advanced semiconductor supply chain by supporting technology development in the field of advanced semiconductor packaging, where technological progress is accelerating.

Through this project, comprehensive support will be provided not only to ultra-fine processes, which are approaching their limits in global semiconductor technology competition, but also to leading technologies in advanced packaging within the back-end process sector.

With 274.4 billion won invested over seven years, which is more than four times the government R&D investment in the advanced packaging sector (approximately 65 billion won) over the past five years, it is expected that key core technologies in the packaging sector will be secured and competitiveness in the next-generation high-value-added system semiconductor market will be achieved.

The 'K-Cloud Technology Development Project Utilizing AI Semiconductors' aims to develop core data center technologies based on low-power, high-efficiency domestic AI semiconductors and secure sustainable AI computing infrastructure. It is a business for the purpose of.

The project aims to utilize the NPU and PIM semiconductors developed in the Next-Generation Intelligent Semiconductor Technology Development (1.0096 trillion KRW, Ministry of Science and ICT and Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) project, which is already undergoing a preliminary feasibility study, and the PIM Artificial Intelligence Semiconductor Core Technology Development (402.7 billion KRW, Ministry of Science and ICT and Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) project, and to achieve a ranking within the top 3 in the world based on learning performance efficiency and inference energy consumption efficiency among similar AI computing systems released to the market by 2030, when the project ends, and to utilize more than 20% of the technologies developed in this project in actual domestic cloud.

It is expected that the implementation of this project will enhance the competitiveness of system semiconductors within the domestic semiconductor industry, which is currently heavily concentrated on memory semiconductors, and contribute to the widespread use of domestically produced AI semiconductors and the expansion of exports.

Ryu Kwang-joon, Head of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters, said, “As the global competition for semiconductor technology supremacy intensifies, it is crucial to secure core future technologies such as low-power AI semiconductors and advanced packaging,” and urged, “Please make every effort to ensure the smooth implementation of the two major semiconductor projects that passed the preliminary feasibility study today so that Korea can maintain competitiveness and secure an advantage in the future semiconductor market.”