In 2010, the whole world has been captivated by James Cameron's movie Avatar and various Apple divices such as the iPad and iPhone, which holds true for Korean industries as well. The 3D fever swept a variety of industries including movie, broadcasting, home appliances, construction and other convergence fields. The iPhone and iPad, too, have completely changed the industry and it is no longer simple to find conventional mobile phones.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy awarded Korea's top ten new technologies as selected by an expert panel, at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul, December 9th.
Among the ten products and technologies that won awards were: Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S, winner of the technology grand prize; LG Electronics' Nano Full LED BLU technology; Korea Institute of Industrial Technology's eco-magnesium and eco-aluminum; Hyundai Motor's front-wheel 6-speed automatic transmission; Samsung Electronics' 30 nm-class 2GB DDR3 SDRAM; SK Chemical's environmentally-friendly heat-resistant high-transparency resin; Park Systems' XE-3DM; SKT's USIM/Micro-SD Card with built-in Zigbee; Samsung Engineering's Ecopro PFC reduction technology; and AMORE PACIFIC's oriental herbal products for hair loss prevention.
Technology grand prize winner: Samsung Electronics 'Galaxy S'
Samsung Electronics is charging at the global smartphone industry with the Galaxy S as their weapon of choice for smartphone and smartpad markets. Galaxy S adopted, for the first time in the world, the 4-inch Active-Matrix OLED with a built-in touch panel, providing optimum image quality even in the open air, as well as ultra-low energy CPU, which allows for multi-tasking, and 3D graphic card. In addition to the highly compatible OS and user-friendly Android platform, Galaxy S also boasts Bluetooth 3.0 and wireless LAN that has twice as high speed as typical LANs.
Apart from the domestic market, consumers in the U.S., Europe, and Japan are also showing great response to the Galaxy S, which is expected to easily sell over 10 million before long.
Technology Gold Prize winner: LG Electronics 'Nano Full LED BLU'
Only 8.8mm in thickness, the Nano Full LED BLU won the gold prize for its high contrast ratio and superb image quality. The Nano Full LED BLU obtains consistent lighting on its screen by converting the light from 1,440 light sources, in case of the 47-inch model, into over 10 million lights through a nano-silk screen. Also, the frame width was reduced to 12.5mm by placing LED over the entire surface. Such technologies are known to offer more realistic and lively images for the viewers.
Technology Gold Prize winner: Hyundai Motor 'front-wheel 6-speed automatic transmission'
With growing concern for environmental issues including climate change, Hyundai Motor's small and light 6-speed auto gearbox, an essential part for the development of environmentally-friendly automobiles won the gold prize. The 6-speed automatic transmission has 62 less components - hence, 12kg lighter and 41mm smaller - than the existing 5-speed transmission, with a special layout for this product developed by the company. Moreover, there is no need to change the automatic transmission fluid, and also no oil level gauge means less maintenance cost and higher fuel efficiency.
Technology Gold Prize winner: KITECH 'eco-friendly new alloy'
The Eco Mg and Eco Al developed by Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) succeeded in blocking greenhouse gases. Particularly, abandoning the use of SF6 in its manufacturing process and has allowed magnesium to be used as an eco-friendly material, since SF6 used to be regarded as one of the biggest problems of magnesium despite its outstanding mechanical property.
Eco Mg and Eco Al can contribute to reducing the weight of automobiles, aircrafts, electronic devices, and even products used for leisure sports.
Technology Silver Prize
The silver prize winners are as follows:
Samsung Electronics '30 Nano Class 2Gb DDR3 DRAM': reduces energy consumption by 65 percent, in comparison to previous models, and provides optimum speed of 2.1Gbps.
Samsung Engineering's Ecopro PFC reduction technology: contributes to tackling climate change by efficiently eliminating PFC, which has the highest global warming potential among six greenhouse gases announced by the UN and SF6.
SK Chemical's environmentally-friendly High Performance PETG Resins: uses vegetable-based materials.
Park Systems'XE-3DM (3-Dimensional AFM): is an industrial automobile device used for accurately analyzing properties of high-tech devices of nanometer sizes such as CD (Critical Dimension), LER (Line Edge Roughness), and LWR (Line Width Roughness), etc.
SKT's USIM/Micro-SD Card with built-in Zigbee: This is the world's first micro-SD/USIM Card with built-in Zigbee developed by the company.
AMORE PACIFIC's research on oriental herbal material for hair loss prevention: The company adopted this state-of-art drug evaluation system to extract Thujaorientalis L, and proved its function for hair loss prevention, which was subsequently approved by KFDA.
