A former SK Hynix employee has been formally accused of illegally transferring technologies related to advanced chip packaging used for 3D NAND, HBM, and multi-chiplet assemblies as well as CMOS image sensors to Huawei's HiSilicon division, reports DigiTimes citing the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's office. There is an interesting wrinkle in this story: Huawei's HiSilicon did not directly ask for specific technologies.
While working at Huawei, the suspect allegedly took IP related to CMOS image sensors (CIS) and hybrid bonding chip packaging technology that is used for 3D NAND, HBM3/HBM3E/HBM4 memory, as well as advanced stacked multi-chiplet packages (e.g., TSMC's SoIC and Intel's Foveros 3D). It is unclear whether the suspect's targets were hybrid bonding and image sensors, or 'just' hybrid bonding as modern CMOS sensors also use hybrid bonding.
