A researcher who previously worked at Samsung Display has been arrested and indicted on charges of leaking the company's proprietary OLED technologies to Chinese entities. The unnamed researcher, who has been in China for five months, has returned to South Korea voluntarily to face the charges.
Samsung Display's proprietary OLED technologies worth $300 million were leaked to China
It is being reported that an ex-Samsung Display researcher, who is 49 years old, conspired with other researchers to leak several OLED technologies owned by Samsung Display to his own companies in China and South Korea. Between 2018 to May 2020, they attempted to sell technologies related to OLED excimer laser annealing (heat treatment process) equipment and optically clean resin inkjet machinery.
The prosecution claims that the researcher worked at Samsung Display for ten years in fields related to the technologies that were attempted to be sold. Later, the researcher worked at a Chinese firm that makes display panels, but the name of the firm hasn't been revealed yet. The investigation into this matter was started after getting a tip from South Korea's NIS (National Intelligence Services).
The researcher fled to China, and five of his co-researchers were found guilty by the court in November 2021. Now that the researcher has returned from China to South Korea, he will face prosecution. It is estimated that the value of the OLED technologies in question is around KRW 340 billion (around $300 million) and that Chinese companies that got access to intellectual properties benefitted from the leak.
You can view Samsung's new foldable OLED panels and technologies in our hands-on video below.
