Samsung Electronics Brings in TSMC Executive as Vice President for Packaging Development

Samsung Electronics hired Lin Jun-cheng as a vice president, a veteran engineer who worked for nearly 19 years at TSMC, Samsung’s archrival in the foundry business. The recruitment of Lin was aimed at speeding up the development of advanced packaging technology, in which the Korean chipmaker is actively investing.

According to the industry on March 8th, Samsung Electronics recently hired Lin as vice president of the advanced packaging business team in the semiconductor (DS) division. Vice President Lin will carry out the development of advanced packaging technology in this organization going forward.

Vice President Lin is an expert in semiconductor packaging who worked at TSMC from 1999 to 2017. During this period, he orchestrated TSMC’s applications for more than 450 U.S. patents. Lin is credited with contributing to laying the groundwork for 3D packaging technology which TSMC is currently excelling at. Prior to joining TSMC, Lin also worked for Micron Technology, an American memory semiconductor company. Also, right before joining Samsung Electronics, Lin worked as the CEO of Skytech, a semiconductor equipment company in Taiwan, and accumulated production experience for packaging equipment.

Samsung Electronics’ advanced packaging investment is somewhat late compared to global semiconductor companies such as TSMC and Intel. However, since last year, the Korean chipmaker has been actively building packaging infrastructure and recruiting talented people. Last year, Samsung Electronics created an advanced packaging commercialization task force under the direct control of DS Division President Kyung Kye-hyun. This task force was upgraded to the Advanced Packaging Business Team, a permanent organization led by Vice President King Moon-soo, this year. Before recruiting Vice President Lin, Samsung Electronics brought in Vice President Kim Woo-pyung from Apple and appointed him as the head of the US Packaging Solution Center to reinforce human resources.

In addition, Samsung Electronics’ foundry division recruited Vice President Lee Sang-hoon, who researched extreme ultraviolet technology, an advanced lithography process, from Intel. Benny Katibian, who developed autonomous vehicle semiconductors from Qualcomm, the world’s largest chip design company, also moved to Samsung Electronics’ U.S. corporation. In addition, Lee Jong-seok, executive director of the MX Division at Samsung Electronics in charge of the smartphone business, also moved from Apple to Samsung Electronics this year.