Tokyo Electron Korea ran a talent development program that let college students experience actual semiconductor manufacturing equipment and processes.
Tokyo Electron Korea said on the 28th that it held the first class of the two-day semiconductor talent development program "TEL-In Camp" on the 26th–27th. Forty juniors and seniors in science and engineering from eight universities that have industry-academia partnerships with the company took part.
The curriculum included a company introduction, a tour of the research and development (R&D) center cleanroom, hands-on training with equipment at the training center, and mentoring by working engineers.
The first day's training took place at Tokyo Electron Korea's Hwaseong office and the R&D center "TTCK-2 (TEL Technology Center Korea-2)." TTCK-2, completed in Oct. 2024, is Tokyo Electron's third domestic R&D base, a facility where customer wafers are brought in to develop process technology.
Tokyo Electron Korea opened the TTCK-2 cleanroom, which is usually restricted from public access, to the students. The students listened to explanations from the responsible engineer and observed semiconductor manufacturing equipment and processes in actual operation.
They also observed the process of reading fine circuit patterns using a critical dimension scanning electron microscope (CD-SEM). A CD-SEM is a metrology tool that measures the critical dimension, the line width of a semiconductor's fine circuits, to check whether the pattern is implemented as designed.
On the second day, hands-on equipment training was held at the Bal-an plant training center. The students completed four courses, including coater/developer equipment responsible for coating and developing before and after the photo process, cleaning and etching equipment training, and Virtual Reality (VR) training.
The training used the same facilities and equipment employed for actual Tokyo Electron engineer training. In-house process training trainers explained each tool's role and characteristics and how they are applied on semiconductor production lines.
Tokyo Electron Korea currently has industry-academia partnerships with eight universities, including Gachon University, Kyunghee University, Dankook University, Myongji University, Sungkyunkwan University, Ajou University, Inha University, and Hanyang University. It is also carrying out talent development activities such as sponsoring academic societies, awarding scholarships, and donating semiconductor-related textbooks.
In Jul., it opened the "TEL Semiconductor Dream Lab" at the children's job-experience theme park KidZania Seoul and began semiconductor engineer experience training for children.
Roh Tae-woo, head of Tokyo Electron Korea, said, "Ultimately, people carry forward advances in semiconductor technology," adding, "By working with universities to expand opportunities for students to directly experience actual equipment and processes, we will contribute to nurturing talent in Korea's semiconductor industry."