New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 157

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 157. Organization and Arrangement (2)

The maintenance of both the battery research lab and factory was complete.

Since we only made slight modifications based on the facilities GL Battery had been using, we could utilize them immediately without spending much time.

“Branch Manager! You’ve arrived. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”

“Dr. Robin, have you been well? I had urgent matters to attend to, so I couldn’t visit often. I’ll make regular visits from now on.”

“I’ll repay your interest with even better results.”

“Have you adapted well to life in the research lab?”

Dr. Robin smiled at my question.

“Not only have I adapted, but I’m very satisfied in every aspect. The scale, facilities, and equipment are several times superior to the Hong Kong Research Lab. Moreover, the research personnel are excellent, so we’ve been able to increase our speed much more.”

“If there are any areas where you’re lacking, please let me know anytime. If you need new equipment, feel free to make the purchase first and report it later.”

I had no intention of being stingy with money for the battery business.

As long as we could dominate the rapidly developing portable device battery market, any amount we invested now would definitely be profitable.

“We’ve already secured all the necessary equipment. In fact, we have so much that we can’t even use it all.”

“That’s fortunate then.”

“I’d like to show you our research results so far. Do you have time?”

“You already have results? I’d love to hear about them.”

Dr. Robin smiled like a child as he brought out the research results.

“First, the stability of lithium polymer has greatly improved. This is thanks to having precise environments and facilities like those in semiconductor factories.”

“How is the mass production yield?”

“That has also greatly improved. It’s increased by more than 15% from before. It’s not quite at the level where mass production is possible yet, but if we can improve it just a little more, mass production will definitely become feasible.”

The money we spent was certainly worth it.

The existing battery factory wasn’t much different from a general electronic components factory.

But we designed our battery factory like a semiconductor line.

We thoroughly controlled humidity and temperature, and even installed air conditioning systems that don’t allow a single speck of dust.

“I’ll continue looking for areas to improve in the line. That should make the yield a bit better, shouldn’t it?”

“The line is already nearly perfect. Not only have stability and yield improved, but the variation between cells has greatly decreased, and even heating and lifespan issues have been resolved. Now it’s time to advance through research results rather than processes.”

Dr. Robin’s voice carried confidence.

It seemed he had found something that could enable mass production.

“It looks like you’ve found a breakthrough.”

“We’ve optimized the combination ratio of lithium polymer. As the previously unstable electrolyte became stabilized, the defect rate dropped to less than half, and we can now uniformly match cell stacking intervals. Now we just need to verify it in the factory rather than at the laboratory level.”

“You’ve worked hard. Mass production might be possible starting this year at the earliest.”

“I can’t be certain, but full-scale mass production should be possible by early next year at the latest.”

The lithium polymer prototype had finally reached the completion stage.

Now it was time to look ahead to the next phase.

I handed Dr. Robin the materials I had prepared.

“Since lithium polymer mass production is approaching, I’ve thought ahead about the next stage.”

“I was actually waiting for this. I’ve heard from various places that Branch Manager excels at breakthrough technology development and providing direction.”

“You flatter me. I just prepared this hoping to be of some small help.”

I had prepared several materials as if writing patent drafts.

They contained four different directions in total.

“First, this is material about lithium polymer applications. The main market will continue to be portable devices. So we need to optimize for small devices starting now.”

“You mean to consider miniaturization from the design stage.”

“Exactly. We must make them as thin and light as possible so people can comfortably carry them as portable devices.”

“Even if we produce them, they’d be useless if no one uses them, so I’ll keep that in mind.”

I didn’t intend to stop at just providing direction.

I had even set specific target values for what specifications would be needed to be installed in future portable devices.

“We need to reduce thickness to 3mm or less, weight to 20g or less, achieve energy density of 200Wh/L or more. Also, we must maintain 90% of initial performance even after 500 charge-discharge cycles to truly become batteries suitable for small devices.”

“The target values are quite high. By current standards, it means we need to halve the thickness and increase energy density and lifespan by more than three times.”

“We don’t need that level right now. However, looking ahead 20 years, these target values are absolutely necessary.”

Dr. Robin exclaimed in admiration.

He seemed completely unprepared for the fact that I was looking so far into the future for the battery business.

“I didn’t know you were thinking 20 years ahead. You’re looking much more long-term than I am.”

“It’s easy to say. I’m being cautious because it feels like I’m giving unnecessary advice.”

“Not at all. It’s being very helpful. I’d like to see the other materials quickly too.”

Dr. Robin immediately picked up the next material.

It contained somewhat abstract directions.

“This is material about nickel-cobalt-manganese combinations.”

“Increasing nickel content can raise energy density. However, it still needs more time to reach the commercialization stage.”

“I understand that currently a 1:1:1 ratio, the NCM 111 structure, is being researched. But this structure has limited energy density improvement.”

“That’s why research is proceeding with a 523 ratio. Our research institute is also proceeding with the 523 ratio as our research goal.”

It wasn’t easy research.

The more nickel content increased, the more heating and lifespan problems occurred.

But here I made a decision to go one step further.

“Please set the 523 ratio as a short-term goal, and simultaneously proceed with 811 ratio research as well.”

“No research institute has properly started 811 ratio research yet. There’s also insufficient related data, so it’s no different from research that creates something from nothing.”

“523 ratio batteries will eventually be quickly followed by other companies. So we need to proactively lead 811 research from now to create a technology gap with other companies.”

To dominate the lithium polymer market, technological superiority was absolutely necessary.

While the market size was small now with few competitors, as the portable device market grew, companies targeting lithium polymer would definitely increase.

“The research itself isn’t difficult. However, it requires enormous costs and manpower.”

“That’s why I promised trillion-won level investments. And we must also proactively research mixing silicon with existing graphite for anode materials to secure overwhelming technology in the future.”

“The method of mixing silicon with graphite has been proposed in academic papers, but hasn’t reached the commercialization stage yet. This research also requires enormous costs.”

I too had read the direction through papers.

We must apply an 811 ratio for cathode materials and silicon mixing method for anode materials.

Only when those two elements mesh together would a perfect gear structure be completed.

“We must research both cathode and anode materials simultaneously to overwhelm other companies. It will be difficult, but I’m asking for your help.”

“Understood. But Branch Manager’s prepared materials aren’t finished yet. Now I’m scared to look at the materials.”

“The remaining materials are topics to research jointly with Daehyeon Semiconductor, so you don’t need to be that scared.”

Only then did Dr. Robin quietly turn to the next page.

It contained materials related to fast charging technology and battery management systems.

“If we can secure lithium polymer stability, we can apply fast charging.”

“Portable devices must ultimately be capable of fast charging to capture users’ hearts. Please think of it as a long-term project and proceed slowly.”

“Understood. But what is a battery management system? Are you perhaps referring to existing cell protection circuits or charge-discharge chips that go into mobile phones?”

Battery management systems were already being used in various places.

But I wanted a revolutionary system that was clearly different from existing management systems.

“I want to attach a brain to batteries. Not simple systems that protect existing charge-discharge and calculate remaining capacity, but sophisticated systems that precisely manage heating and lifespan.”

“You mean making such battery management systems in chip form and attaching them to batteries.”

“I want to create intelligent batteries that don’t simply supply energy, but judge their own condition and maximize device performance.”

“It sounds like you want to create living batteries.”

Battery management systems were also an important pillar of the structure.

While we’re currently pursuing battery business for portable devices, intelligent batteries were absolutely necessary to draw a bigger picture.

“You might think my plans are looking too far into the future. But if we proceed step by step from now, it’s sufficiently achievable.”

“There won’t be time to be bored. There will be endless things to research for at least the next 20 years. And now I understand why Branch Manager said you’d invest trillion-won amounts in batteries every year.”

Dr. Robin’s eyes changed.

It was like looking up at the massive Mount Everest from atop a small hill.

He had thought the lithium polymer hill was the end, but I had shown him a new mountain comparable to Mount Everest.

“As I said again, feel free to purchase necessary equipment or facilities proactively.”

“I hope you won’t complain about buying too much. We’ll need a lot of new equipment to move in the direction Branch Manager wants.”

“By all means. Oh! And we’ll proceed with patent registration for all technologies. Nexpin will be entirely responsible for patent applications, so you just need to prepare patent drafts. We can’t waste our precious researchers’ time on patent applications, can we?”

Nexpin had now established itself as Korea’s number one patent specialist company.

Thanks to filing patents at a level comparable to large corporations like Samjin Electronics and GL Electronics every year, we were able to accumulate more extensive experience than any other company.

Recently, they had significantly expanded their support team personnel and gained sufficient capacity to handle even battery field patents.

“Working with Tiger Fund certainly makes everything easier in every aspect. I wish we had collaborated from the beginning.”

“I’m grateful you think that way. And I’ve prepared a compensation plan. We plan to convert 3% of the estimated value of filed patents into bonuses and distribute them to the inventors and their teams.”

“That’s too much money. Are you sure that’s alright?”

“To keep talented personnel, we must provide sufficient compensation. Besides, all companies under Tiger Fund receive similar compensation.”

This was also the reason Nexpin could grow.

There was no better compensation plan for improving work efficiency, and if money could prevent talent drain, it was never an excessive amount.

“I’ll file patents so enthusiastically that Tiger Fund’s bank account will have holes in it.”

“Even if a few holes appear, it won’t run dry. So feel free to focus on research without worry.”

No matter how much compensation we gave.

Since patents could generate even greater profits, more money would naturally flow in.

Of course, to do that, we’d need to sign additional battery supply contracts, but with good technology, clients would naturally gather.

Now the battery side was finished being organized.

I headed to Rollbook for the next cleanup.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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