Tokyo Electron opens semiconductor career experience lab for children at KidZania Seoul

Children go through an air shower before entering the cleanroom at the TEL Semiconductor Dream Lab, which Tokyo Electron Korea opened Tuesday at KidZania Seoul in Songpa-gu, Seoul. [Tokyo Electron Korea]

"Use the brush in front of you to spread photoresist evenly across the wafer. You need to coat it with photoresist — a liquid that reacts to light — before you can draw the semiconductor circuit."

Tokyo Electron Korea, Asia's largest semiconductor manufacturing equipment company, on Tuesday unveiled the TEL Semiconductor Dream Lab — or TEL Dream Lab — at KidZania Seoul, a children's career-experience theme park inside Lotte World in Songpa-gu, Seoul. The facility is modeled after a real semiconductor research laboratory.

KidZania Seoul lets children try out a wide range of careers — firefighter, chef, pilot, ramyun researcher and police officer, among others. The TEL Dream Lab is the only space at the park themed around semiconductor engineering.

A preview visit to the TEL Dream Lab on Monday, the day before its official opening, revealed a space that turns semiconductor manufacturing into play, designed to spark children's curiosity about an industry they might otherwise find intimidating.

The experience begins with participants suiting up head to toe in blue cleanroom coveralls and clear goggles, just as researchers wear in actual semiconductor cleanrooms. An air shower — identical to those used at real industrial facilities — is also part of the setup.

Only after a blast of air removes any dust from their clothing can participants enter the laboratory. The process gives children an intuitive sense of how even microscopic particles can cause critical defects in semiconductor manufacturing.

Children experience the photolithography process — one of the four core semiconductor manufacturing steps — at the TEL Semiconductor Dream Lab, which Tokyo Electron Korea opened Tuesday at KidZania Seoul. [Tokyo Electron Korea]

Inside the laboratory, stations equipped with monitors, joysticks and buttons give the space the feel of an arcade.

Young semiconductor engineers use these stations to work through the four core chip-making processes — photolithography, etching, cleaning and deposition — as if playing a video game. Tokyo Electron is the only company among the world's top four semiconductor equipment makers that produces equipment for all four of those processes.

After completing missions under the direction of a virtual laboratory director, six semiconductor chip models appear on screen. Gathering them and inserting them into a slot triggers an animation in which a serving robot transforms into a dancer and reveals a vision of a future city called Dream City.

As the semiconductor industry enters a historic boom and interest in related careers rises, Tokyo Electron Korea built the TEL Dream Lab so that even elementary school students can begin to imagine semiconductor research as a future profession.

Roh Tae-woo (second from left), CEO of Tokyo Electron Korea, and Ahn Jun-sik (second from right), CEO of KidZania Korea, cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony for the TEL Semiconductor Dream Lab at KidZania Seoul in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Tuesday. [Tokyo Electron Korea]

Tokyo Electron's corporate vision is what it calls a "Dream Inspiring Society" — building a society that inspires dreams.

The TEL Dream Lab offers a blend of play and learning designed to help more children develop an interest in semiconductor engineering and nurture their ambitions.

Roh Tae-woo, CEO of Tokyo Electron Korea, attended the opening ceremony in person. "Behind advanced technologies such as AI, self-driving cars and robotics lies the indispensable role of semiconductor equipment companies, driving innovation from behind the scenes," he said. "We hope that through the TEL Dream Lab, the next generation can experience firsthand the starting point of all innovation and grow into the engineers who will lead the future."

Tokyo Electron Korea plans to invite underprivileged children to the TEL Dream Lab in September for a "Dream Camp" program.

joze@heraldcorp.com