“He was one of the few foreigners that Samsung treated with utmost respect. He even took special care of his family.”
One day in 2009. Samsung Electronics paid attention to Taiwanese Yang Meng-song (Liang Meng-song, middle photo) who resigned from TSMC . He made considerable efforts to recruit him. In 2011, Yang Mengsong finally joined Samsung Electronics. He later laid the foundation for Samsung Electronics’ foundry (semiconductor consignment production) business. Some people say that Yang Mong-song is the ‘father of Samsung Foundry.’
September 2017. He suddenly left for SMIC , China’s largest foundry company . SMIC quickly absorbed his technological skills honed at TSMC and Samsung Electronics . This served as the background for this company to produce 7 nanometer (㎚ · 1 ㎚ = 1 billionth of a meter) chips. The U.S. administration, shocked by this, is also paying attention to Yang Mengsong. What kind of person is Yang Mengsong?
According to relevant ministries and industries on the 27th, it was confirmed that officials from the U.S. Department of Commerce met with officials from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in Washington D.C. last week (18th to 22nd) and discussed semiconductors.
At the time, an official from the Department of Commerce was known to have made intensive inquiries about the ‘brain chip’ application processor ( AP ) used in China’s Huawei’s smartphone ‘Mate 60 Pro’. There was great interest in the background of AP being designed with the 7nm process. ㎚ refers to the width (line width) of the circuit through which electrons travel in a semiconductor. The narrower the line width, the better the semiconductor performance and the higher the power efficiency.
Just before the US government’s semiconductor sanctions, China’s semiconductor process level was limited to 14nm. However , the industry was shocked when Huawei and SMIC designed a much more advanced 7nm chip using their own technology. The U.S. government and the Korean semiconductor industry point to Yang Mong-song as the person who led this.
Yang Mengsong’s life trajectory is unique. He is a Taiwanese born in Taiwan in 1952 and completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering there. He also received a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer engineering from UC Berkeley, USA. He also briefly worked at AMD , an American semiconductor company . He began to demonstrate his capabilities in earnest after joining TSMC
in his home country in 1992 . Here, ‘Finpet(FinFET ) has emerged as a top expert in process technology. It was named ‘ FinFet’ because the upper protruding part resembles a shark’s dorsal fin ( Fin ) while designing a semiconductor chip structure composed of a flat (2D) surface into a three-dimensional (3D) structure. Based on the FinFET technology he led, TSMC solidified its position as the top foundry.
However, when TSMC did not recognize his achievements and he was pushed to one position, Yang Meng-song decided to leave the company. Since 2009, he has worked as a visiting professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea, teaching Samsung Electronics semiconductor personnel. In 2011, he served as an executive-level researcher in the foundry business team of Samsung Electronics’ System LSI Division.
The Foundry Business Team is the predecessor of the Foundry Division, which was separated into an independent business division in 2017. It is known that Samsung put a lot of effort into recruiting him. It is said that he not only paid a considerable annual salary, but also provided various benefits to his children living in the United States.
Having worked in the Samsung Electronics foundry먹튀검증 business, he demonstrated his capabilities to the fullest. He made a significant contribution to developing the world’s first 14nm FinFET process, beating TSMC in 2014 . He then succeeded in developing the 10nm process. Thanks to this, Samsung Electronics also won Apple’s iPhone AP foundry supply.
TSMC was outraged by Yang Mong-song’s performance at the time. Unable to bear it, TSMC filed a lawsuit against Yang Mong-song on charges of technology leak. Taiwan’s Supreme Court ruled that Vice President Yang Mong-song cannot work at Samsung Electronics until the end of 2015. Vice President Yang Mong-song, who briefly left Samsung following the lawsuit, returned to work in early 2016, but left the company immediately after.
Yang Mengsong’s next destination was SMIC in China . He took up the position of co-CEO of SMIC and, like Samsung Electronics, transplanted the 14nm FinFET process to the company. SMIC succeeded in producing Huawei’s 14nm-class AP , ‘Kirin 710A’ , in 2020 . Last year, there was news that SMIC produced 7nm-level chips. The rumor eventually turned out to be true. It is known that he, who fostered the Chinese semiconductor business, receives an annual salary of more than 2 billion won from SMIC .
The U.S. government and the Korean semiconductor industry are astonished by the technological prowess of SMIC , led by Yang Mong-song , while also doubting the effectiveness of regulations. Yang Mong-song has quickly emerged as a semiconductor magnate who is receiving attention from the global semiconductor industry and the U.S. administration. TSMCIn Taiwan, he is seen as a ‘traitor’. Samsung Electronics is also keeping a close eye on him, who was once a colleague but has now become a ‘object of caution.’