This publication is an original piece by The JoongAng. Written by Tae-wook Kim ().
When I landed in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, 12 hours away from Incheon International Airport, the first thing I saw was a small airport. It was a peaceful city with windmills that could have been described in Cervantes' novel Don Quixote. The bus fare from the airport to the hotel was 1 euro (about 1400 won). I paid the coin and boarded the bus. It was nostalgic, like a childhood scene. Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, was like a scene from a fairy tale. The city was so peaceful that Don Quixote wouldn't have been out of place riding his horse. The buses running along the river were silent, unlike other city buses in Seoul.
Lithuania, a small country with 2.7 million inhabitants, is home to some of the world's most advanced technologies. Laser companies are the main players here. The main advantage of lasers, also known as “light beams”, is “sophisticated processing”. Lithuania holds half of the world market for picosecond (trillionths of a second) lasers. Lasers are an indispensable technology for semiconductor manufacturing. In fact, Korean companies also use ultra-short pulse lasers from Lithuania. Laser processing machines required for semiconductor manufacturing are broadly divided into “nanosecond pulse lasers” and “ultra-short pulse lasers” depending on the pulse width. Ultrashort pulse lasers include picoseconds and femtoseconds (1 trillionth of a second). The advantage of ultrashort pulse lasers is that they allow for ultra-precise processing compared to nanosecond pulse lasers.
One of Lithuania's leading companies, Teltonika, also uses Lithuanian laser technology. The Internet of Things (IoT) market leader made headlines last year when it announced that it was working with the Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to develop semiconductor technology. The company announced that it could license semiconductor manufacturing technology and devices developed by ITRI. At the time, foreign media speculated that Lithuania would soon become a semiconductor producer, not just a provider of laser technology.
Semiconductors bring Taiwan's government closer together
What does Lithuania's leading Internet of Things (IoT) company look like? As I pull up to the entrance of Teltonika's headquarters, a 10-minute-long drive from Vilnius city center, I'm greeted by an imposing building. Across the street, the exterior walls of a large building were still under construction. "We are planning to invest 500 million euros to build a semiconductor facility with a land area of 50,000 square meters," explains Viačeslav Jaroševič, general manager of Teltonika in Asia region, as he shows me around. "The pace of our expansion is not keeping pace with demand," said V. Jaroševič. "The growth of Teltonika is driven by the increasing demand for semiconductor lasers."
"The technical cooperation agreement with ITRI consists of three main phases," he said. "Last year, we conducted the first phase, the “feasibility study”. It is a study for semiconductor design, manufacturing, assembly, testing, and production of power modules," he explained. He reaffirmed that Teltonika's ultimate goal is to go beyond providing laser technology to producing semiconductors.
The recent closeness between the Lithuanian and Taiwanese governments cannot be explained without mentioning the cooperation between Teltonika and ITRI. Currently, the organization has a Taiwanese representation in Vilnius, rather than a Taipei representation. Beijing strongly objected to the move, saying it violated the "One China" principle, and in November 2021, Beijing downgraded diplomatic relations with Lithuania from ambassadorial to deputy ambassadorial status.
The Teltonika-ITRI contract is currently valued at €14 million. Of this amount, €10 million will be funded by Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and €4 million by Teltonika. The two sides have detailed plans for four projects, including semiconductor design, manufacturing, assembly and test, and power module manufacturing. This has led to speculation that Lithuania and Taiwan have in mind a future semiconductor alliance like the "Chip 4" (Korea, the United States, Japan, and Taiwan).
Vilnius University is a model of industry-academia collaboration
Next, we visited Light Conversion, a company that is often referred to as Lithuania's laser giant. "Light Conversion was founded in 1994 at the Laser Research Center of Vilnius University," says Martynas Barkauskas, who sits across from me on the ground floor of the company's building in the information area. Together with another Lithuanian company, Ekspla, the company, which started in a university laboratory 30 years ago, Light Conversion is a global market leader in femtosecond lasers. The PHAROS femtosecond laser is the company's flagship weapon for light conversion.
I left the main entrance of the company and headed to Vilnius University. I was curious to see what the university's Laser Research Center, home to a world-class laser company, looked like. Vilnius University is one of the most prestigious universities in Lithuania and Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, the University's Laser Research Center, founded in 1982, is a "laser school" that has produced numerous laser technicians.
When I entered the main entrance of Vilnius University, I was greeted by Prof. Dalia Kaškelytė, the director of the Laser research center. Unlike the stiff atmosphere of a typical research lab, I was impressed by the free-spirited startup atmosphere. Graduate students were sitting face-to-face with their advisors, drinking coffee and chatting. One PhD student said, "Nice to meet you," and laser-etched the journalist's name on a piece of glass when D. Kaškelytė told him he was from Korea.
"The CEO of Light Conversion also studied lasers here and developed his dreams," says Prof. Vytautas Jukna, explaining the importance of the university to reporters. "The university-industry cooperation at Vilnius University Faculty of Physics is excellent. "There is good communication between the faculty and companies, with PhD students being seconded to companies. It's a win-win situation," he said. "Successful industry-academia collaboration creates a natural reshoring of talent," he added. He explained that Lithuanian talents studying abroad are returning home. One such example is Martynas Barkauskas, CEO of Light Conversion. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Vilnius University, he earned his master's degree in The Netherlands. He then returned to Vilnius to study for his PhD, taking advantage of Lithuania's excellent university-industry collaboration system and research institutes.
When asked by the reporter, "What is the secret to "reshoring" talent," the Light Conversion CEO pointed to the excellent facilities at Vilnius University. "The physics laboratories at Vilnius University has the most advanced laser equipment in the world. That's why I came back to my hometown," he said. "When I was doing my PhD, I never dreamed that I would become the CEO of Light Conversion," he said with a smile, explaining that as a graduate student, the company was located across the street from Vilnius University, making it convenient for me to get to and from school.
"Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are perfect for collaboration"
Lithuania is home to many companies that, like Light Conversion, have grown from startups to become an integral part of the Lithuanian economy. Another example is QS Lasers, a startup that may not be a household name globally but is well known in Lithuania. QS Lasers, a provider of picosecond and nanosecond laser technology, was founded in 2018. The main applications of the startup's technology are laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIBS), OLED processing, and medical applications. I visited QS Lasers' headquarters, a 15-minute long drive from the city center. Upon entering the headquarters building, I was greeted by Voldemaras Vanagas. He prefaced his answer by saying that he had just joined the company, but added, "Most of my friends have been dreaming of starting a startup since they were undergraduates, rather than entering the workforce. Of course, they might fail, but I think it's important to try."
The last stop on the tour was the Lithuanian Laser Association (LLA). "We have a guest from Korea, a semiconductor powerhouse," said Dr. Gediminas Račiukaitis, president of the LLA, when he saw the journalists. "Lithuania is a world leader in ultrashort pulse lasers," G. Račiukaitis said, "which makes it an ideal place to work with Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and SK hynix." "There are more than 60 laser companies competing in Lithuania, a country of 2.7 million people. Most of the entrepreneurs studied lasers at Vilnius University," he said, adding that industry-academia collaboration is the key to Lithuania's success.
