On the 13th, Vice President Kim Wihun, Head of the MLCC Manufacturing Technology Team, received the Industrial Service Merit Medal at the 21st Electronics & IT Day ceremony in recognition of his contributions to strengthening the competitiveness of Korea's electronic and automotive component industries.
This award recognizes his 26 years of leadership in developing core new products and fundamental technologies in the field of Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC), as well as his contributions to the localization in Korea and the global competitiveness of high value-added MLCCs for IT and automotive applications.
'Electronics & IT Day' was established in 2005 to commemorate Korea's electronics and IT industry surpassing $100 billion in exports. On this day, the Order of Industrial Service Merit, the Industrial Service Merit Medal, Presidential Citations, Prime Minister's Citations, and Ministerial Citations are awarded to individuals who have contributed to the advancement of the electronics and IT industries and to the nation's global standing.
Since joining Samsung Electro-Mechanics in 2000, Vice President Kim has led the development of core technologies and new products for IT and automotive MLCCs as a product development expert, contributing to the technological competitiveness of Korea's electronic component industry.
In particular, in 2009, he led the world's first development of a 1μF MLCC in the 0603 size (0.6mm x 0.3mm), and in 2011, he achieved the world's first development of a 2.2μF MLCC of the same size, pioneering high-capacitance, compact MLCC technology. Through these achievements, he secured core component technologies that support increasingly high-performance and slimmer smartphones, and contributed to strengthening the competitiveness of Korean companies in high value-added MLCCs for IT applications.
Additionally, leveraging his experience in IT MLCC development, he led the development of core materials and process technologies for automotive applications, and in 2022 and 2023, developed high-capacitance MLCCs for automotive use for the first time in the industry.
Since 2024, as Head of the MLCC Manufacturing Technology Team at the Component Solution Unit, he has been leading the development of MLCCs for AI servers. In response to demand for high-performance, high-reliability components in the AI server market, he has developed and supplied high value-added MLCCs to global semiconductor companies in a timely manner, contributing to the expansion of the AI server MLCC business and to securing technological competitiveness.
Vice President Kim stated, "I will take the lead in strengthening the competitiveness of Korea's electronic component industry by proactively developing high value-added MLCC technologies and products that will drive the growth of future industries such as artificial intelligence (AI) and automotive electronics."