Award-winning memory chip expert Shi Guojun leaves US for job at top Chinese semiconductor firm

An expert on semiconductor packaging and memory chips has left the University of California, Irvine after more than two decades to join a leading conductive materials company in eastern China.Shi Guojun has taken on the role of chief strategic scientist and director of the Future Industry Research Institute at DK Electronic Materials, the company said in a statement posted online on March 6.According to DKEM, Shi will lead the company’s strategic planning and development in emerging industries, with a focus on advancing its semiconductor memory business.It comes amid a push from Beijing for Chinese companies to achieve self-sufficiency in advanced technologies such as semiconductors – and their packaging, the final stage in the manufacturing process – to get around Western export restrictions and meet surging demand for the products.Based in Yixing, Wuxi, DKEM has become one of the world’s leading suppliers of photovoltaic metallisation paste – an advanced solar cell material – with a global market share of around 25 per cent last year.The company listed on Shenzhen’s ChiNext start-up board in 2020.DKEM’s latest appointment underscores a strategic expansion into the semiconductor memory sector after several company acquisitions in the area.