National Nanofab Center The National Nanofab Center has been doing all it can to foster the Daedeok Innopolis as one of the world's top five reform clusters, Ph.D. Lee Hee-chul, president of the National Nanofab Center said. To achieve that ambitious goal the center will attract excellent manpower, adequate funding, and large enterprises as well as utilize advanced technology through close inside and outside networks, he said. In the 22 million-pyong (72.6 million square meter) Daedeok Innopolis, there are 31 government-invested research centers and over 750 high-tech small and medium venture companies where about 30,000 researchers are working. Although the center has been greatly contributing to the development of the Innopolis through outstanding study results, all research centers are required to establish a joint cooperative body to attain the target, said Lee. At the same time, the government needs to set up comprehensive supporting measures for the Innopolis to actively attract domestic and foreign companies. This would include corporate tax exemption similar to other economic zones, he said. The National Nanofab Center is currently engaging in joint R&D projects with large companies including LG and Samsung. It is also working with small and medium-sized venture companies such as Genicom. These projects are centering on the development of strategic technology in the industrial sector. It also attracted 11 industrial, academic and research institutions into the center including LG Electronics Institute of Technology. It actively supports them for development of advanced technology, said Lee. In just one year after launching its service in March 2005, the center succeeded in joint development of the world's smallest 3nm-class nano-scale FinFET with a research team at KAIST. As the total semiconductor market is expected to reach 425 trillion won in 2015, the market volume of the 5nm element will come to 200 trillion won. Considering this, the ripple effects of the development of the nano-scale FinFET will be great, Lee said. A number of advanced countries are establishing and operating many FABs for the support of nano study. In Korea however, nanotechnology-related study infrastructure was very fragile because of the high price of nanotechnology study equipment. To effectively cope with rising demand for nanotechnology study the government established the National Nanofab Center, a FAB supporting nano study and development. The key roles of the center are to concentrate nano-related equipment in one place, provide study objects of industrial, academic and research circles with nanorelated research equipment and processing service and foster professional nanotechnology manpower, as well as link developed nanotechnology to industrialization, he said. Meanwhile, the center has three major targets for propulsion; establishment of a foundation for research and development of nano technology, encouraging use of the center and creation of new nanotechnology-related industries. The government constructed the FAB center, and mobilized related equipment, and started the FAB using service in March 2005. To encourage use of the center, it developed nanotechnology-based processing technology and offered a total of 4,414 services during the period from March 2005 to August this year, said Lee. For the creation of new nanotechnology-related industry, the center is also engaging in joint development projects with large companies and small and medium-sized ventures centering on strategic technology. Korea began to foster nanotechnology in 2001. The nation's nanotechnology level reached 25 percent of advanced countries in 2001, but improved to 66 percent in 2005. The number of nanotechnology-related companies also increased from 78 to 136 during the corresponding period. In the case of SCI thesis numbers, Korea ranked 8th in the world with 408 cases in 2001, but jumped to 5th with 1,128 cases in 2004.