April 25, 2024

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[ET NEWS] Samsung Electronics is recruiting experts in the US and Europe as part of its efforts to better control battery safety on devices following the unprecedented recall of the Galaxy Note 7 last year.

Sources say the candidates are required to have a master’s or doctorate degree in battery science. Those who have expertise in battery materials and cell development, in particular, are reportedly more preferred. 

With the talent search ongoing abroad, Samsung’s human resource executive interviewed some candidates in the US last month.

Following the Note fallout, Samsung has set up a separate team that oversees the whole process of parts design, inspection and production. More recently, it has hired outside experts to strengthen specialty.

Samsung pinpointed faulty batteries as the key cause of the fire-prone Note phone. The company didn’t carry out its own safety inspection on batteries while depending solely on inspection results provided by suppliers.

Now Samsung has adopted its own battery test consisting of X-ray inspection and random sampling both before and after shipments from suppliers.

Beyond safety, sources say Samsung is also seeking to secure its own expertise in next-generation batteries considering battery size has become a key to device design in this era of data guzzlers.

Its archrival Apple also operates an in-house battery development team that hires an increasing number of engineers and material developers.

The Note phone used batteries from Samsung SDI and China’s ATL. The latest Galaxy S8 uses batteries from Samsung SDI and Japan’s Murata Manufacturing. For Apple, ATL is the largest battery supplier.

By Chung Hyun-jeong (iam@etnews.com) (jylee@heraldcorp.com)
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