postech-School of EECS Convergence

POSTECH Professor Rokhyun Baek Receives Minister of Education Award for Excellence in University–Industry Collaboration

Professor Rokhyun Baek of the Department of Electrical Engineering at POSTECH has been honored with the Minister of Education Award for his outstanding contributions to university–industry collaboration, particularly through the successful commercialization of university-based technologies and his role in strengthening national competitiveness in strategic semiconductor technologies.

As of 2025, Professor Baek has transferred a novel leakage-current reduction method for Gate-All-Around Field-Effect Transistors (GAA FETs)—the world’s leading logic semiconductor technology, currently implemented in the mass production of the 18-ångström node. The award was bestowed by the Ministry of Education, based on a recommendation from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), and was presented during the opening ceremony of the 2025 University–Industry Cooperation EXPO, held on October 29 at EXCO in Daegu.

Gate-All-Around FET (GAA FET) represents the most advanced transistor fabrication technology in the global semiconductor industry, dominating the logic sector that accounts for roughly 70% of worldwide semiconductor production. As a breakthrough device structure that marks the transition from the nanoscale era into the ångström era, GAA FETs are manufacturable only by Samsung, TSMC, and Intel. They serve as the core technology enabling peak performance in next-generation AI and mobile processors, including NVIDIA Rubin Ultra, AMD Instinct MI450, Apple A20, Tesla Dojo and Optimus, and Intel Panther Lake.