Former Samsung engineer accused of giving 10nm DRAM data to China’s CXMT, handwritten notes detailed over 600 process steps — gas flow ratios, photoresist setti

Former Samsung engineer accused of giving 10nm DRAM data to China's CXMT, handwritten notes detailed over 600 process steps — gas flow ratios, photoresist setti

Luke James Social Links Navigation Contributor Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.

SpicyLlama Need to start restricting employment in certain fields by birth country and nationality. This happens too often, both in academia and the private sector – for friends and foe of China alike. Obviously this wouldn't include Taiwan, which is a separate country and differing cultural tendencies. Modern day pirates. Reply

SammyB025 Then who stole cutting edge node tech from TSMC for Intel? And where do you draw the line? Is knowledge learnt and memorized from working at a tech company now corporate property? Are the engineers' (and former engineers) brains themselves company property, if they worked even for a day? Is it now a crime (and not just civil contract violation, if they signed NDAs) for tech workers to ever quit and work for a rival? This is the reason the patent system exists, you know. If something is patented, then there is actual, legal protection. If something is kept as a "trade secret", then there is (at least theoretically) no legal protection from copying, reverse engineering, or from poached workers disclosing that information. Trade secret "theft" is only illegal if another illegal act (e.g. breaking and entering, hacking, etc) was committed to access the trade secret in the first place. The act of disclosure itself is not the illegal part Reply

SkyBill40 If the Chinese want it badly enough, they're going to get it regardless of the means. Corporate espionage and IP theft mean nothing to them and are all part of the engine that drives their mindset. Reply

phead128 Samsung got its advanced nodes by hiring TSMC engineers. Intel just hired a TSMC engineers to steal talent and associates knowledge as well. It's a tale as old as time. Reply

Mfahadshah Well, consumers need cheap RAMs one way or another. If current suppliers can't fulfill market demands then there is no harm in anyone doing so Reply

Balter68 Well good for Korea; when Nortel information went walkies over two decades ago Canada did nothing. Reply

jcwbnimble And does anyone believe China gives a darn about the copyright system? They've copied everything from Christmas tree stands to microchip lithography and never felt the pinch from a copyright infringement lawsuit. AND there is the bigger issue of intellectual property, either from the private sector or government. Anyone who doesn't think the chinese nationals working in every industry within the USA are spies for the CCP, are ignorant, stupid, or straight up spokespeople for the CCP. The CCP considers every chinese person on US soil to be spies, just like the USSR did after 1917 for every russian on US soil. Reply

phead128 jcwbnimble said: And does anyone believe China gives a darn about the copyright system? They've copied everything from Christmas tree stands to microchip lithography and never felt the pinch from a copyright infringement lawsuit. AND there is the bigger issue of intellectual property, either from the private sector or government. Anyone who doesn't think the chinese nationals working in every industry within the USA are spies for the CCP, are ignorant, stupid, or straight up spokespeople for the CCP. The CCP considers every chinese person on US soil to be spies, just like the USSR did after 1917 for every russian on US soil. Well, US did impact tech bans on China, so I am not sure why they are crying about IP or copyright. Maybe don't impose tech bans on China then? You expect they just roll over and accept it? Reply

nameless0ne I wonder what type of evidence did they get? Did they find those notes scanned and sent to the competitor? Or did they simply find the notes while performing a search and then inferred that those were taken with a nefarious purpose in mind. Because this could have been a meticulous technician who was taking notes on technical settings he was in charge of. Reply

ribzz China has been stealing for a very long time. No country even comes close. They steal an idea and proliferate its manufacturing and products. Reply

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