Chinese memory manufacturer CXMT allegedly followed a detailed written roadmap to acquire Samsung’s DRAM technology, according to court documents cited in an ongoing South Korean legal case. The plan, reportedly called Project Hefei, laid out long-term steps for technology acquisition, engineer recruitment, and production tape-out that prosecutors say directly enabled CXMT to capture roughly 10% of the global DRAM market.
The court case has already produced multiple convictions, including prison sentences for two former Samsung engineers. Prosecutors describe Project Hefei as CXMT’s complete DRAM development strategy, spearheaded around August 2016 by the company’s head of development, who previously led DRAM development at Samsung. Notably, CXMT itself had only been established in June 2016 in Hefei, from which the project reportedly takes its name.
A 620-Step Recipe and a Fast-Tracked Timeline
According to leaked court documents, the alleged plan called for obtaining Samsung’s Process Recipe Plan (PRP) by September 2016, poaching key Samsung engineers by October 2016, completing research and development by July 2017, and beginning DRAM wafer production by August 2018 at a rate of 10,000 wafers per month. The PRP dataset reportedly consists of 620 steps in DRAM manufacturing and covers equipment, consumables, and production methods.
Prosecutors say CXMT first tried to build 18nm chip wafers in August 2016 by relying on the recollections of the former Samsung engineers it had hired. When those memories proved insufficient, the company allegedly obtained illicit access to Samsung’s PRP and produced its own version of the document in September 2016. The leaked data reportedly included specific equipment suppliers and model numbers.
CXMT’s version of the PRP was then distributed to key specialists, many of them former Samsung staff whom prosecutors argue should have immediately recognized the source of the material. The document reportedly contained notation and process-development notes unique to Samsung. A convicted former Samsung researcher, identified by the surname Jeon and previously sentenced to seven years in prison for manually copying portions of the PRP before joining CXMT, testified as a witness in the case.
Why the Case Matters for the Global Memory Market
The legal proceedings have been unfolding in South Korean courts since January 2024, and the stakes extend well beyond a single trade secret dispute. A decade ago, the DRAM market was dominated by three companies: Samsung, Micron, and SK hynix. CXMT entered that landscape in June 2016 with a government investment of roughly EUR 2 billion, allegedly without any research and development facilities or a research plan in place.
Moving from zero facilities and institutional expertise to DRAM wafer production in a little over two years would be an extraordinary achievement. Building a memory fab alone typically takes two to four years, before any time is allotted for research, underscoring how difficult such a leap would be without the alleged intellectual property transfer.
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Image: tomshardware.com
