For Stealing Supercritical Cleaning Equipment Technology

Prosecutors have indicted a total of seven persons, including former SEMES employees, for stealing company technology.

The Suwon District Prosecutor's Office announced on May 25 that it indicted a total of seven persons, including former SEMES employees, for violations of the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act and the Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology. In addition, two former SEMES researchers as accomplices and the company they founded were indicted without detention.

“Those in question stole the supercritical cleaning equipment manufacturing technique developed by the Samsung Electronics subsidiary from March 2018 to December last year,” the office explained, adding, “They made 14 semiconductor cleaning machines using the technique and sold the machines in China to get 71 billion won.”

The former employees founded the company in question after leaving the subsidiary. They did not return data and information in leaving it and received some components containing technical data from a partner firm. Design drawings, component lists, software, and so on ended up in their hands as a result.

Supercritical cleaning equipment is to clean semiconductor substrates with supercritical carbon dioxide, that is, carbon dioxide in a state where distinct liquid and gas phases do not exist. The equipment is essential for the purpose of substrate damage minimization.

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