In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1959
- Birthplace
- Goryeong, North Gyeongsang, South Korea
- Country
- South Korea
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Jusung Engineering and thin-film manufacturing equipment
- Birth year
- 1959
- Company established
- 13 April 1993
- KOSDAQ listing
- 24 December 1999
- Patent example
- US 6,872,421 B2, 2005
Why this life matters
His career brings suppliers, inventors and organisational reliability into an industrial history often told only through the makers of finished chips.
Timeline
Key moments
Birth
Born in Goryeong according to the 2008 interview profile.
Jusung established
Company listing record gives 13 April.
Equipment and exports
Company chronology records development and export milestones.
KOSDAQ listing
Listing record gives 24 December.
Patent grant example
US grant names Hwang and Kyung-Sik Shim as inventors.
Research facility
Company history records its Yongin R&D centre.
Technical education and employment shaped the beginning
A 2008 ETNews interview profile places Hwang Chul-joo’s birth in Goryeong in 1959. It records Dongyang Technical High School, Inha Technical College and electronic-engineering study at Inha University. The biographical box also identifies experience at Hyundai Electronics and ASM before his own venture. These institutions and employers locate the career within technical education and manufacturing practice. They do not supply an independently verified exact birthday. The article’s reported age is not converted into one, particularly because Korean age conventions and an unknown birth day would make that inference unreliable.
Sources for this section: [1]
The business began as an equipment supplier
Jusung’s listing information dates its establishment to 13 April 1993 and its KOSDAQ listing to 24 December 1999. The company chronology places an equipment-development milestone in 1995 and an export milestone in 1997. These are distinct events: founding a business, developing equipment, exporting it and becoming publicly listed do not share one date. The company supplies tools used in manufacturing processes, rather than being interchangeable with a producer of finished memory chips. Its own first-in-Korea descriptions remain corporate priority claims rather than an independent survey of every earlier supplier.
Manufacturing technology required named inventors
One concrete record is US Patent 6,872,421 B2, issued on 29 March 2005 for an atomic layer deposition method. The grant names Chul-Ju Hwang and Kyung-Sik Shim as inventors, and Jusung Engineering as assignee. It describes a particular arrangement for applying vapour substances to substrates. That record provides more precise technical attribution than a general founder title. It does not establish that Hwang invented atomic layer deposition as a whole, or that every product the company later sold implemented this patent. Named co-inventors and the company’s institutional role should both remain visible.
Sources for this section: [4]
A patent and a commercial machine are different records
The patent’s front page distinguishes a Korean priority claim, a US filing, a published application and the eventual grant. Its claims then specify the method rather than documenting a factory’s operating results. A patent can therefore help explain an invention record without supplying customer-adoption figures, manufacturing yield or the launch date of a particular machine. Commercial equipment development also requires engineering, testing, production and support work beyond the published claims. This profile uses the document to illuminate the business’s technical setting, not to offer a current opinion on legal validity, infringement or licensing freedom.
Hwang described learning that technology was insufficient alone
In the 2008 interview, Hwang reflected that he had once believed superior technology by itself would produce a successful company. He later emphasised reliability, corporate culture and infrastructure alongside technical capability. That is a useful participant account of a changing management view. It is not proof that every employee or customer experienced those qualities. The same biographical box records expansion from semiconductor equipment into display and solar-related equipment, showing that organising a supplier business involved more than a single apparatus or market.
Sources for this section: [1]
Research investment belongs to a continuing institution
Jusung’s chronology records construction of its Yongin research-and-development centre in 2020. That facility is a later corporate milestone, not a new founding date or a direct measure of research productivity. The company’s history and interview together describe a business built around technical capability and the organisation required to deliver it. The patent adds a bounded example of named invention work. Hwang’s significance lies in that connection between engineering and enterprise, while claims about market dominance, world-first totals or realised investment returns require evidence beyond the selected records examined here.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Hwang Chul-joo
- Did the patent name Hwang alone?
- No. The original grant names Chul-Ju Hwang and Kyung-Sik Shim, with Jusung as assignee.
- Does the grant prove the commercial performance of a machine?
- No. The patent record and an operating-performance record answer different questions.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Chey Tae-won
Compare the roles of equipment suppliers and a semiconductor-group leader.
- Park Tae-joon
Explore another institution-building career in heavy industry.
- Seo Jung-jin
Compare technical manufacturing and entrepreneurial organisation in another sector.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. ETNews / Joo Moon-jungPower CEO: Hwang Chul-joo, 26 May 2008
Selected actual Korean introduction, first-person business reflection and biographical box read for 1959 Goryeong, education, HyundaiElectronics/ASM work, 1993 founding and equipment diversification. English editorial paraphrase, not a certified translation. Header publication date 26 May used rather than digits 23 May in URL; no age inferred from Korean-age 50.
- 2. Jusung EngineeringJusung listing information
Actual static listing fields read: establishment 13 April 1993 and listing 24 December 1999. Live stock quotes, capitalisation and current-role footer are not used as investment guidance or biography-date evidence.
- 3. Jusung EngineeringJusung milestones
Selected company chronology read for 1993 establishment, 1995 equipment, 1997 export, 1999 listing and 2020 R&D centre. First-in-Korea/market claims are company claims, not independently established priority or impact.
- 4. US Patent and Trademark Office; original grant PDF via Google PatentsUS 6,872,421 B2: Atomic Layer Deposition Method
Actual 7-page grant PDF acquired; PDF 1 front page and PDF 7, columns 5–6; claims 1–9 in column 6 read alongside selected description passage. Two inventors, original assignee, foreign priority, filing/publication/grant dates and explicit claim dependencies examined. No complete family/prosecution/litigation file, current validity/expiry opinion or performance test. Source diagrams not reused.
- 5. Google Patents, reproducing US patent recordUS6872421B2: record and claims transcription
Actual metadata and claims 1–9 transcription read and checked against original grant. Google’s machine-generated current-assignee/status/expiry assertions are not adopted as legal conclusions; no linked litigation database read.