[INTERVIEW] Merck vows to be best partner for Korea tech firms

Merck's OLED Application Center in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of Merck

By Baek Byung-yeul

Kai Beckmann, CEO of Performance Materials at Merck / Courtesy of Merck

The COVID-19 pandemic has sent the global economy into a deep contraction, infecting tens of millions of people across the world and bringing economic activities to a near standstill.

In the wake of the pandemic, Merck, based in Germany, is developing its technological capabilities as its cutting-edge materials will be increasingly used in digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), fifth-generation networks (5G), internet of things (IoT), autonomous driving and smart cities.

Kai Beckmann, CEO of Performance Materials at Merck, said the leading company in semiconductor and other electronics materials businesses will continue to establish close relationships with Korean firms and academia, which have been playing pivotal roles in advancing electronics technologies.

In 2020, Merck opened the Korea Advanced Technology Center (K-ATeC) in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province for the semiconductor industry and decided to invest in OLED manufacturing expansion. Beckmann said the company has decided to invest more in Korea in order to strengthen its supply chain and develop advanced technologies.

"Korea is an important innovation and production hub for Merck. We have made investments in the past to expand our capabilities and we will continue the efforts to strengthen our supply chain resilience locally," Beckmann said in an email interview with The Korea Times.

"We recently opened an Advanced Technology Center in Pyeongtaek to develop next-generation semiconductor materials to support the research and development of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurries and cleans. In addition, we're looking at further developing our capabilities in thin film and patterning in Korea," he said.

"Korean companies are leading players in innovating the electronics industry. We are proud to be a partner of those highly-innovative corporations. With our high-tech solutions, we enable our customers to drive innovations in the display as well as in the semiconductor industry. We provide highly sophisticated materials and solutions for liquid crystal or OLED displays as well as for every major step in the wafer manufacturing process for the semiconductor industry. Major potential areas of growth for Korean customers are OLED for new form displays including rollable, transparent, and foldable and semiconductor materials," he added.

The CEO said the Korean government's efforts to foster its own materials, parts and equipment businesses in high-tech and manufacturing industries will further beef up the country's competitiveness in the IT industry.

"Korea is currently focusing its efforts to foster its own materials, parts, and equipment industries. We appreciate the plan of the Korean government to support small-sized enterprises in materials as well as the transfer of technologies and R&D. This will strengthen the industry in Korea and foster an ecosystem of innovations especially important in the highly innovative markets we are active in," he said.

The CEO said Merck has already seen visible results from a new R&D center in Korea as the research unit helped the firm cooperate more closely with Korean tech companies and scholars.

"Our investments start to show results. Our presence with local R&D support allows us to speed up the responses to our customers in demo tests, sampling and data generation. Our customers appreciate our new R&D center and our capabilities to develop new materials not just in planarization but also other technology areas," he said.

"As a result, we see increasing customer engagement opportunities. Our local R&D activities will also allow us to further strengthen our collaboration with academia in Korea."

When asked what technology areas Merck expects to develop with Korean tech companies in the future, Beckmann picked Korea's semiconductor and display sectors, which are the country's leading industries.

"Semiconductor and display industries are core markets in Korea. After the acquisition of Versum, Korea is the biggest Asian market for Performance Materials in terms of revenue, and it is still growing," he said.

Merck acquired Versum Materials, a U.S.-based electronic materials firm providing chemicals and gases used for semiconductors, in 2019.

Shines at CES 2021

Even though the global economy has been struggling from the impact of the pandemic, Merck is looking beyond its current business portfolio to seize business opportunities after the global epidemic is over.

To showcase its technology leadership in the high-tech materials industry, the company took part in the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show last week, held online for the first time in its 54-year history due to the pandemic.

At the tech fair, Merck shared how its high-tech materials business can contribute to bringing technologies such as AI, 5G, IoT, self-driving and smart cities to the next level.

The company introduced a liquid crystal product called "eyrise" invisible privacy window, which can protect against sun glare and heat at reduced maintenance costs. The product received an innovation award at CES.

"First of all, there is some good news for Merck at CES 2021. Our new eyrise invisible privacy windows received an innovation award by CES in the Smart Cities category. This innovation can instantly change from clear to translucent. Eyrise privacy windows provide unparalleled comfort without compromising on confidentiality, daylight and flexibility," he said.

Merck believes that its technological capability in high-tech materials can further advance innovation in many types of technology that will have wide applications in our daily lives.

Beckmann said the company is also providing high-tech materials used for quantum computing, which is "poised to disrupt traditional computing methods for new applications in financial services, pharmaceutical research, logistics, quantum chemistry, and machine learning."

"While the science of quantum computing has been well understood for decades, a machine capable of running the most powerful algorithms known today has yet to be realized. Merck provides advanced materials highly relevant to the manufacturing of quantum technologies and is partnering with start-ups, industry partners and research institutes," he said.

Predicting that data explosion, which has been ignited by megatrends such as digitalization, urbanization, miniaturization and mobility, is set to continue unabated in the coming years, the CEO of Performance Materials said Merck has worked as an "innovation enabler" with its advanced products and technologies.

"Our high-tech solutions make the realization of AI, big data, 5G, IoT and autonomous driving possible. We are the company behind the companies advancing digital living. This applies to our solutions and materials used to create microchips as well as our liquid crystal (LC) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technologies used to build bright and sharp displays," he said.

To cement its leadership in the materials business, Merck acquired two companies in 2019 _ Versum and another U.S.-based company, Intermolecular, which produces materials for semiconductors, consumer electronics, cars and the aerospace industry

Beckmann said the acquisitions have paved the way for Merck to become a "leading electronic materials player focusing on the semiconductor and display industries."

Boosting diversity and inclusion

Beckmann also said Merck is trying to be more inclusive at a time when the importance of valuing equality and diversity have been emphasized more than before. The company nominated a female Korean big data expert as the head of Digital & Data at the end of last year. Also, the company named a female scientist as the head of K-ATeC, Merck's R&D unit in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul.

He said Merck is committed to creating an "integrative culture."

"We firmly believe that a diverse workforce _ coupled with a company culture that values and motivates people _ boosts the innovative strength of our group and contributes significantly to our business success," the CEO of Performance Materials said.

Beckmann said the company will continue to have more female executives take on leadership positions.

"The focus of our diversity strategy continues to lie on furthering women in leadership positions. Since Asian markets are becoming increasingly important to us, we have set ourselves the new objective of promoting talent from Asia more strongly," he said.