In 1983, then-President Ronald Regan issued Proclamation 5013. In it, he designated February 11 — the birth date of prolific inventor Thomas Edison – as National Inventors’ Day. The occasion, he explained, was “in recognition of the enormous contribution inventors make to the nation and to the world.”
Today, nearly four decades later, inventors are just as vital to the economic, environmental and social well-being of the world. Just as in Edison’s day as in Regan’s day, these forward-thinkers are the pioneers leading us all towards the potential of tomorrow.
At SK hynix, we’re privileged enough to have many of these pioneers within our own organization – driving our organization and our world all towards a more productive, efficient and intelligent future. With so many patents being processed at any given time, SK hynix has established its own in-house patent registration system to simplify the application and submission process.
In tandem, we have created the “Innovation Patent Reward” competition, which allows us to recognize and reward team members who have invented the most promising of these patented technologies. Now in its third year, the competition awards Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the employees with the most impressive work.
Winners are selected through a qualitative evaluation based on contribution to problem solving along with contribution to sales. This year, a total of 10 innovation patents were selected, and over USD 0.2 million was awarded to 15 incumbent researchers who invented the technology.
Recognizing Our Own Inventors
Gold Winners
Kim Kwui Dong, DRAM Design team, Project Leader
Choi Jun Gi, DRAM PE, Technical Leader
Tell us about your Gold-winning patent. “It’s a patent that supports Boot-Up operation for use of E-Fuse Array in DRAM. It is applied to a specific DDR3 product of ours, and it is being applied to all subsequent products during mass production.”
What inspired the idea? “In the existing metal fuse, it became difficult to reduce the fuse pitch due to the limitations of the equipment which make it net die bottle neck. In order to improve it, we came up with the way to apply E Fuse IP used in SOC to DRAM.”
How long did it take to bring to life? “It took approximately one month to conceive of the patent, but it took more than half a year to analyze the actual circuit and construct a suitable circuit for DRAM and the actual product execution period to apply it to the product.”
Silver Winners
Lim Jeong Sub, DRAM Process Integration, Technical Leader
Chun Jai Houb, DRAM Technology Development, Technical Leader
Tell us about your Silver-winning patent. “It is a pattern formation method and semiconductor device manufacturing method using this pattern formation method. It has been applied to all products since it established itself as three Tech Platforms since core project product.”
What improvements has it enabled? “It dramatically improves contacting metal via’s landing margin formed in bit line. The relevant margin has become free to a level where there is no need to evaluate the process margin.”
What’s next? “The margin of the pitched layout area continues to deteriorate due to the tech shrink of DRAM products. I would like to contribute to the development of DRAM that can secure quality by continuing to derive patent ideas that can improve these points. Wouldn’t it be great if you were given the same reward as this one?” – Mr. Lim
Bronze Winner
Song Choung Ki, DRAM Design, Technical Leader
Tell us about your Bronze-winning patent. “This patent is for a technology that supports overlapping rupture of DRAM’s e-fuse array. It allows the most recent e-fuse rupture row to be accessed when a defect is found again in the application test or field test stage and the e-fuse rupture is required.”
What inspired the idea? “There was a possibility of a problem caused by a redundant rupture in PPR – Post Package Repair – one of the DDR4’s specifications, and it made me think that it should be mandatory to be handled inside DRAM. That is where I started the patent.”
How does this technology help your work at SK hynix? “It enhances mass productivity by removing potential defects for simultaneous access to word lines of duplicate rupture.”
Celebrating our Inventor Spirit
This inventor spirit is central to who we are, how we do business, and most importantly, why we do business at SK hynix. We believe in the potential of an idea to grow into a concept to grow into a technology that can shape the world. We believe in it because we’ve participated in it ourselves. Together, as a company, we have used our collective power to drive the fourth industrial revolution, pushing the world into an altogether novel chapter of progress and innovation.
