Prosecutors allege handwritten notebooks detailed hundreds of optimized manufacturing steps developed over five years.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works .
(Image credit: Intel) Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Share this article Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Last week, South Korean prosecutors indicted multiple individuals in a case alleging that a former Samsung engineer leaked advanced DRAM manufacturing process data to China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), shedding light on how leaked trade secrets may have accelerated China’s push into 10nm-class memory. Now, it has come to light (via SemiAnalysis ) that the engineers in question allegedly took note of detailed critical manufacturing steps in handwritten notes taken over five years.
The former Samsung engineer was arrested for offences under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and the Industrial Technology Protection Act for allegedly passing along information on Samsung’s sub-10nm DRAM process before CXMT began mass production of comparable memory in 2024, two years earlier than expected. This may have caused trillions of losses in Korean Won for both Samsung and South Korea. Meanwhile, CXMT is expected to capture as much as 15% of the market thanks to its advanced memory products.
The formerly employed Samsung Electronics engineer is accused of bypassing internal digital security systems by manually recording sensitive process data in handwritten notes. These notes are believed to have covered more than 600 individual manufacturing steps, including detailed parameters such as gas flow ratios, reactor pressures, and photoresist settings used during critical lithography and deposition stages.
Ten former Samsung employees arrested for industrial espionage charges for giving China chipmaker 10nm tech
Taiwan hits Japanese firm with indictment in TSMC data theft saga
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/samsung-engineer-accused-of-leaking-10nm-dram-process-data-to-chinas-cxmt#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
- As AI Grows More Complex, Model Builders Rely on NVIDIA
- Amiga motherboard project to add NVMe SSD boot support and a driver for the onboard Ethernet — Mirari project hopes to ‘breathe new life into the next-gen Amiga
- Extremely rare East German game console from the late 1970s tested — only such device produced by communist GDR, bought for $1,000 at auction
- Marine Biological Laboratory Explores Human Memory With AI and Virtual Reality
- Game the Halls: GeForce NOW Brings Holiday Cheer With 30 New Games in the Cloud
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.