Korea's premium weapons are receiving love calls from the global market thanks to their high performance and price competitiveness, but defense semiconductors—which serve as the brain, eyes, arms, and legs of these systems—are mostly dependent on imports. If semiconductor-producing countries reduce or halt supply, or prohibit sales to third countries, the K-defense industry's production and exports would be hindered. Professor Eo Yun-seong of Kwangwoon University's School of Semiconductor System Engineering said in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily on the 13th, "Although our country has researched and developed defense semiconductor technology for about 40 years in its own way, we still depend on overseas imports for 98.9%," adding, "Policy authorities and industry need to reflect on why we received such a report card and foster the defense semiconductor industry under national leadership."
Professor Eo pointed out, "In Korea, defense semiconductors are still treated as mere components," and "The related industry has been complacent with 'high-mix, low-volume production' practices and existing semiconductor technology while avoiding the risks of introducing new technologies." This is why domestic products remain at an outdated level with non-standardized specifications and high prices. As a solution, he suggested, "The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and the semiconductor project organization, which serve as the policy and development control tower, should be elevated, experts should be expanded, and new strategies for technology development and industrial ecosystem cultivation should be established."
Professor Eo, regarded as Korea's foremost defense semiconductor expert, emphasized, "We must actively integrate our world-class civilian semiconductor manufacturing technology and infrastructure into the defense sector to open an era of mass production suited for the age of artificial intelligence (AI), drones, and robots."
—What are defense semiconductors?
According to DAPA guidelines, defense semiconductors collectively refer to 'semiconductors that are applied or have the potential to be applied to weapon systems.' Defense semiconductors are not entirely different from civilian semiconductors. They are civilian semiconductor technologies enhanced with certain functions, performance, and operational reliability to reflect military requirements for each weapon system. The design and manufacturing methods are similar to civilian applications, and most are produced at civilian fabs (semiconductor manufacturing plants). Therefore, many defense semiconductors can also be used for civilian purposes.
—What types are there?
They are not much different from civilian semiconductor types. First, there are RF front-end semiconductors responsible for amplifying signals transmitted and received by antennas in wireless communication systems. There are also RF transceiver semiconductors that convert analog signals to digital and digital signals to analog. Logic semiconductors, which serve as computational processors playing the brain role in defense weapons and equipment systems, AI semiconductors, and memory semiconductors belong to defense semiconductors. Additionally, there are sensor semiconductors, driver semiconductors, and power semiconductors. Their design, manufacturing processes, and ecosystems are all different. Therefore, defense semiconductor industry development policies must be established diversely to match the characteristics of each type.
—What is the global defense semiconductor market size?
Based on analysis of U.S. Department of Commerce reports and other sources, it is estimated at approximately 20 trillion won as of 2023. There has been a preconception that the defense semiconductor industry operates on a 'high-mix, low-volume production' basis, making the market small and economically unfeasible. However, it is actually not a small market. Most defense semiconductors also have versatility for civilian use, so targeting that niche can secure economic viability. Moreover, demand for defense semiconductors is surging due to the arms race among major countries following the Ukraine war and Iran conflicts. Particularly in manned-unmanned teaming systems like military drones and robots, all types of defense semiconductors introduced earlier are combined to function as the brain, arms, legs, waist, and organs. Among these, the importance of AI semiconductors and logic semiconductors will grow. For drones and robots to sense their surroundings with sensors, store that information, and move, RF semiconductors, memory semiconductors, and power semiconductors are also needed.
—In what direction will defense semiconductors develop in keeping with the AI, drone, and robot era?
Until now, the defense semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem has been trapped in the old framework of high-mix, low-volume production, unlike mass-produced general-purpose civilian semiconductors. Also, due to insufficient information sharing, standardization was not properly achieved, and technology remained at decades-old levels with low integration, resulting in large sizes and complex components. On the other hand, military drones and robots are increasingly becoming smaller, lighter, and mass-produced inexpensively. The latest defense equipment and weapon systems are increasingly using similar general-purpose components and becoming standardized and modularized. To meet that demand, defense semiconductors must also break free from the high-mix, low-volume production framework. The core direction of technological development is establishing a system capable of mass-producing hundreds of thousands to millions of units while ensuring quality reliability. Fortunately, Korea has world-class semiconductor mass production technology. We must actively integrate such civilian semiconductor mass production technology to achieve high integration, low power consumption, versatility, low cost, and mass production.
—Which countries currently lead defense semiconductor production?
The United States is most advanced. The majority of defense semiconductors Korea imports are American-made. Representative U.S. companies include Analog Devices, TI, Xilinx, and Qorvo. These companies develop defense semiconductors for dual civilian use to ensure economic viability. However, the U.S. does not possess 100% of all processes from semiconductor design to manufacturing, packaging, and operation. There are many deficiencies in the manufacturing ecosystem beyond fab companies, such as packaging post-processing, and they have depended significantly on Taiwan's fabs and packaging plants. Accordingly, the U.S. is also recently pursuing a strategy to minimize overseas dependence in manufacturing and internalize all processes. In China's case, as they mass-produce cost-effective civilian semiconductors, their defense semiconductor technology level is estimated to be comparable to the U.S. China is also pursuing internalization of all semiconductor processes and appears to have already reached a considerable level.
—What is the state of our defense semiconductor industry ecosystem?
Looking at civilian semiconductors alone, Korea is an advanced country that has built a considerable industrial ecosystem for design, manufacturing, packaging, verification, and operation. However, the civilian ecosystem is not being well integrated into the defense semiconductor field. National strategies and policy incentives are needed to build a defense semiconductor ecosystem utilizing this civilian ecosystem.
—What is Korea's defense semiconductor technology level?
He is an expert who has devoted over 30 years to developing system semiconductors, including defense semiconductors. Born in Seoul in 1971, he graduated from Gyeonggi Science High School. He obtained his master's and doctoral degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). After working on semiconductor design and development as a senior researcher at LG Electronics Advanced Research Institute and a principal researcher at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, he moved to a professorship at Kwangwoon University. In 2009, he founded Silicon R&D, a university venture company, and while serving as both CEO and professor, has been developing semiconductors for communications and radar in both civilian and defense sectors.
Korea has researched and developed defense semiconductor technology in its own way over the past 40 years. However, R&D has not been pursued in a balanced manner across defense semiconductors overall and has been concentrated in certain areas. Projects have been focused mainly on high-power RF semiconductors based on compound semiconductors, Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMIC), and sensor device development and manufacturing processes. There are also almost no experts in Korea who understand both the semiconductor industry and weapon systems overall. Korean government authorities have also surveyed the domestic defense semiconductor industry situation and pursued establishment of development strategies, but this has been limited to input from stakeholders in certain fields like RF semiconductors rather than the entire defense semiconductor sector.
—Then how should we find balance in technology development?
At least the government has recently been supporting AI semiconductor technology development, but alongside this, attention needs to be paid to developing logic semiconductors that serve as the brain in all weapon systems. Power semiconductors, general-purpose chips, and RF SoC (wireless communication semiconductors that integrate signal transmission/reception, digital processing, and memory functions into a single chip) are the same. Since technology development in these fields is quite insufficient on the defense side, a strategy of substituting with civilian semiconductors should be pursued. Rational policies are also needed to attract excellent technical talent from the civilian sector into these defense semiconductor fields. Materials, parts, equipment, and manufacturing processes for defense semiconductors do not exist separately. Almost all are produced using civilian semiconductor infrastructure. Especially in the case of silicon-based semiconductor processes, since the civilian sector has such well-established infrastructure, it is more efficient to actively utilize existing domestic civilian fabs rather than building separate defense semiconductor fabs. However, in compound semiconductor fields other than silicon, domestic companies and research institute fabs are still at insufficient levels. Therefore, policy support for these fabs must be provided.
—What is the domestic industry status in materials, parts, and equipment to support defense semiconductors?
Until now, the defense sector has viewed semiconductors as mere components and mainly imported and used overseas products. System integration companies that finally integrate and assemble each component to complete weapons and equipment also face the burden of taking responsibility if defects occur in products, so less verified They have preferred foreign products over domestically produced semiconductors. Government domestic development projects have often been limited to temporary, short-term initiatives. Long-term and sustained government support must be provided. Additionally, the government needs to institutionalize liability protection mechanisms for the initial defects and flaws that inevitably occur when defense companies use domestically developed semiconductors. It is also important to bring in experts with high understanding of semiconductors into defense policy authorities and supplement the project evaluation system so that semiconductor localization can be emphasized when developing weapons and equipment systems.
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