Making a Semiconductor Superpower: The Seven Engineers from KAIST Who Shaped the Chip Industry

by Dong-Won Kim

Overview

This book provides real stories about the South Korean semiconductor community. It explores the lives and careers of six influential semiconductor engineers who all studied at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) under the mentorship of Dr. Kim Choong-Ki, the most influential semiconductor professor in South Korea during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Kim’s students became known as “Kim’s Mafia” because of the important positions they went on to hold in industry, government, and academia. This book will be of interest to semiconductor engineers and electronics engineers, historians of science and technology, and scholars and students of East Asian studies.

“They were called ‘Kim’s Mafia.’ Kim Choong-Ki himself wouldn’t have put it that way. But it was true what'semiconductor engineers in South Korea whispered about his former students: They were everywhere. … Kim was the first professor in South Korea to systematically teach semiconductor engineering. From 1975, when the nation had barely begun producing its first transistors, to 2008, when he retired from teaching, Kim trained more than 100 students, effectively creating the first two generations of South Korean semiconductor experts.” (Source: IEEE Spectrum, October, 2022.)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032406046
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	09/29/2023
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dong-Won Kim is a historian of science and technology. After receiving his Ph.D. in the history of science from Harvard University in 1991, he was a professor and dean at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He has also taught at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Pennsylvania as a visiting professor or lecturer. His major research fields are the history of physics and the history of science and technology in Korea and Japan. He has published several papers on these subjects, as well as two monographs: Leadership and Creativity: A History of the Cavendish Laboratory, 1871–1919 (Springer, 2002) and Yoshio Nishina: Father of Modern Physics in Japan (Taylor & Francis, 2007). His next project is on cosmic ray research in the first half of the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations. Note on Romanization of Korean. Preface. Introduction. 1. Historical Background: Science and Technology in South Korea, KAIST, and the Semiconductor Industry. Part I Mentor 2. Godfather of the South Korean Semiconductor Community: Kim Choong-Ki. Part II Mentees 3. Teacher, Chip Designer, Patron of Startups, and Spokesperson: Kyung Chong-Min. 4. Mr. NAND Flash: Lim Hyung-Kyu. 5. Exploring New Semiconductor Areas: Cho Byung-Jin. 6. Master of TFT-LCD and OLED: Ha Yong-Min. 7. Treasure of SK Hynix: Park Sung-Kye. 8. Engineer-Entrepreneur: Chung Han. Epilogue: Who Will Become the Next Kim Choong- Ki?. References. Bibliography. Index.