South Korea said on Monday that it had granted final approval to SK hynix Inc.'s 120 trillion won (US$106 billion) project for the construction of a new semiconductor factory, a move that could ease supply shortages in the global market.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, South Korea’s second largest chip manufacturer has completed all necessary administrative procedures for SK Hynix to build the complex in Yongin City, about 50 kilometers south of Seoul.

The statement was approved two years after the company promised to build an industrial cluster of 4.15 million square meters, which reportedly will house four new semiconductor manufacturing plants. According to reports, about 50 subcontractors and suppliers of SK Hynix will also relocate to the area. After completion, the monthly production capacity of the cluster will reach 800,000 pieces.

The project is expected to break ground in the fourth quarter of this year, and the first manufacturing plant is expected to be completed in 2025.

Yongin will serve as the base for DRAM and SK Hynix's next-generation memory chips, while Icheon will be 80 kilometers south of Seoul and will serve as a R&D and DRAM hub. According to SK hynix, Cheongju, located 137 kilometers south of the capital, will become the center of NAND flash memory chips.

South Korea said that the latest investment is expected to alleviate the supply shortage in the global market. The ministry added: “As the chip industry is a key pillar of the country’s exports, the government will spare no effort to resolve any potential problems in the entire project so that construction can begin as planned this year.”

In 2020, South Korea’s chip exports reached US$99.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.6%. This department accounts for 20% of total shipments.

SK Hynix predicts the future of storage: 3D NAND 600 layers and above, DRAM below 10nm

SK hynix CEO Li Xixi gave a keynote speech at the IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS) today, describing the future plans of SK hynix products, and sharing some conceptual technologies, such as DRAM and 600 produced by EUV lithography. Layered 3D NAND.

So far, SK Hynix’s latest 3D NAND is a 512Gb 176-layer stack of 3D NAND. It seems that 600 layers are still far away. At present, they are only studying this possibility, and various problems need to be solved before reaching the 600-layer stack. SK hynix is committed to ensuring the high aspect ratio of etching technology to achieve the high-density technology required by the industry. In addition, they also introduced atomic layer deposition technology to further improve the charge storage performance of the unit and release the charge when needed. At the same time, new conductive materials are developed to keep the charge uniform to a certain extent. In addition, in order to solve the problem of film stress, the mechanical stress level of the film is controlled, and the unit nitrogen oxide material is optimized. In order to cope with the inter-cell interference phenomenon and charge loss that occur when more batteries are stacked on a limited height, SK Hynix has developed an isolated charge trap nitride structure to enhance reliability. In order to deal with the inter-cell charge interference and charge loss that occurs when multiple layers are stacked in a limited height, SK Hynix has developed an isolated charge trap oxide structure to improve reliability.