The Jeollabuk-do Provincial Government has been selected to host a KRW 64.2 billion specialized semiconductor materials and chemicals complex, and the Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Semiconductor Joint Research Center (Project Director Professor Im Yeon-ho) will expand its role as a core hub leading demonstration, evaluation, and professional workforce training for advanced materials and chemicals.

This specialized complex will consolidate the Iksan 3rd Industrial Complex and the Saemangeum National Industrial Complex as production and R&D core industrial complexes, and link the Iksan National Industrial Complex and the Wanju General Industrial Complex as production bases for partner companies. The plan aims to connect companies and R&D capabilities distributed across Iksan, Gunsan, and Wanju into a single materials and chemicals industry network to strengthen competitiveness in advanced chemicals — an area long identified as a key gap in the semiconductor supply chain.

Jeonbuk has production bases for semiconductor materials and chemicals centered on anchor companies such as Dongwoo Fine-Chem, OCI, PKC, and Hansol Chemical, covering ultra-high-purity cleaning, deposition, and etching materials. The JBNU Semiconductor Joint Research Center will operate a shared testbed to validate corporate technology before actual semiconductor process application. This will establish a support system that links development to performance evaluation, reliability verification, and mass-production integration.

Ultra-high-purity chemicals for semiconductors cannot enter the market through technology development alone. Cleaning solutions, deposition precursors, and etching gases must be repeatedly tested for quality, safety, and yield impact before being introduced into actual processes. When materials are changed, extensive time is required for process suitability evaluation and certification. Therefore, establishing demonstration infrastructure at the regional level, which individual companies would find difficult to afford alone, is considered critical to the success of the specialized complex.

The JBNU Semiconductor Joint Research Center will be responsible for the complex’s demonstration infrastructure. The complex development plan calls for establishing an advanced semiconductor chemical testbed from 2027 to 2031 and introducing eight key pieces of equipment to support demonstration, reliability testing, and productization of materials for cleaning, deposition, and etching processes.

In addition, the research center plans to support cleaning chemical and additive demonstration, precursor synthesis and purification, thin-film property evaluation, etching gas reaction analysis and process evaluation, and ultra-trace impurity and defect analysis based on a fab cleanroom. Materials developed by companies will be verified at the research center through basic performance evaluation and process demonstration. Thereafter, in cooperation with Yongin Trinity Fab, with which an MOU was signed this year, a stepwise system will link to mass-production evaluation.

JBNU will also play a central role in R&D for the specialized complex. Joint research and development to be pursued through 2031 will include: domestic production of high-k, silicon, and metal precursors for next-generation semiconductor deposition; design of customized etching gases and integrated demonstration of process and equipment performance for realizing extreme device structures; development of precursors and additives for next-generation logic and memory ALD processes; and development of ultra-high-purity wet chemical materials for advanced semiconductor cleaning and interconnect processes.

JBNU will support industry–university–research collaborative research by performing material design and analysis, thin-film deposition and property evaluation, etching reaction analysis, and process verification according to each company’s technical demand. Companies such as Dongwoo Fine-Chem, OCI, PKC, and Hansol Chemical will take charge of material development and supply, while the JBNU Semiconductor Joint Research Center will support process suitability and performance evaluation in a collaborative structure.

Workforce training is also a major pillar. JBNU will link the Semiconductor Design Education Regional Center, the Semiconductor Specialized University, and the open-fab training system of the Semiconductor Joint Research Center to cultivate field-oriented specialists in the materials and chemicals sector. The specialized complex plan sets a goal of producing 2,050 semiconductor professionals by 2031 through a full-cycle workforce development system covering high school, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs, and incumbent worker training.

Professor Im Yeon-ho, Project Director of the JBNU Semiconductor Joint Research Center, said, “Semiconductor materials and chemicals must not stop at technology development; they must prove performance and reliability in actual processes to lead to commercialization. The JBNU Semiconductor Joint Research Center will faithfully perform as a demonstration hub that advances corporate material technologies through process verification and mass-production linkage.”

He added, “We will establish a system in which companies, universities, and research institutions jointly use equipment and data to reduce development time and verification costs, and contribute to Jeollabuk-do’s emergence as a key hub in South Korea’s semiconductor materials and chemicals supply chain.”

JBNU, centered on the Semiconductor Joint Research Center, plans to work closely with the specialized complex task force, Jeollabuk-do, Jeonbuk Technopark, anchor companies, and partner firms to build a Jeonbuk-style semiconductor ecosystem in which materials localization, supply-chain stabilization, corporate growth, and workforce development form a virtuous cycle.