Samsung Electronics’ VP for advanced packaging technology has left the company.

While local media reported that Lin Jun-Cheng had resigned from his position, posting on LinkedIn he stated that he was leaving “due to the end of my two-year contract.”

Samsung
– Getty Images

Jun-Cheng joined the company in March 2023 having previously worked at TSMC for almost two decades. While at TSMC, he helped lay the groundwork for the chipmaker’s 3D packaging technology and was involved with the filing of more than 450 US patent applications by the company.

He also previously held roles at Micron Technology and Taiwanese semiconductor equipment company Skytech.

“I am pleased to have contributed to the advancement of both the company and my career through the application of Samsung's advanced packaging technologies, including hybrid copper bonding for 3DIC and HBM-16H, I-CubeE, I-CubeR, and CPO,” Jun-Cheng wrote on LinkedIn, adding that his former colleagues should “keep up the good work.”

Despite posting significant profits over successive financial quarters in 2024, Samsung has been unable to keep pace with SK Hynix or TSMC, its biggest competitors in the memory chip and contract chip manufacturing markets.

Following a letter from the company’s co-CEO Jun Young-hyun apologizing for the company’s disappointing preliminary Q3 2024 results, in October 2024 it was reported that Samsung was planning to restructure its chip business, in part by cutting the number of executives working in the Device Solutions (DS) division.

The following month, the company reshuffled its semiconductor executive team in an effort to overhaul the business unit.

However, at the time, it was reported that concerns remained about the appointment of company veterans, including Samsung’s co-vice chairman Chung Hyun-ho and former CFO Park Hark-kyu who had been made his deputy, as it indicated the company was still too reliant on legacy executives who are unlikely to push for reform or innovation.

Samsung Memory Business staff get record end-of-year bonuses

Meanwhile, following a summer of strikes at its facilities in South Korea linked to below-average pay rises and improvements to the performance-based bonus system, workers at Samsung’s Memory Business will receive a performance bonus equivalent to 200 percent of their base salary for the second half of 2024.

According to BusinessKorea, which first reported the news in late December 2024, it is the highest Target Achievement Incentive (TAI) figure ever posted by the company’s DS division, which includes its memory business, with the company last awarding a 200 percent TAI to its Mobile Experience division in 2013.

However, despite the success of the company’s memory department, others within the DS division have not performed as well. BusinessKorea additionally reported that workers in the System LSI and Foundry Business segments received a 25 percent bonus for the second half of 2024, while Semiconductor Research Center and AI Center employees will receive 37.5 percent.

In addition to the bonuses, all DS Division employees will be paid a fixed incentive of two million won ($1,362.27) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Samsung’s semiconductor business.