This is a list of South Korean inventions and discoveries; Koreans have made contributions to science and technology from ancient to modern times. In the contemporary era, South Korea plays an active role in the ongoing Digital Revolution, with one of the largest electronics industries and most innovative economies in the world. The Koreans have made contributions across a number of scientific and technological domains. In particular, the country has played a role in the modern Digital Revolution through its large electronics industry with a number of modern revolutionary and widespread technologies in fields such as electronics and robotics introduced by Korean engineers, entrepreneurs, inventors, and scientists.
Aquaculture Pollock farming In 2016, the National Institute of Fisheries Science of South Korea succeeded in farming Alaska pollock for the first time in the world, allowing the fish to lay eggs a year and 8 months after birth, as opposed to 3 years in the wild. Alaska pollock is considered the "national fish" of Korea and is prepared in a number of dishes, including myeongnan-jeot, which was introduced and popularized in Japan as "mentaiko" in the 20th century.
Mathematics Ree group The Korean mathematician Rimhak Ree discovered and constructed the Ree group in the mathematical field of group theory.
Technology
Electronics 3D hologram The world's first 360-degree color hologram was developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in 2015. 3D nanoprinting pen The first pen that performs 3D printing on the nanoscale was developed by Seongpil Hwang of Korea University in 2014. 5G smartphone Samsung released the world's first 5G smartphone, the Galaxy S10 5G, in 2019. Curved display smartphone The world's first curved display smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Round, was released by Samsung on 10 October 2013. Double-data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM) First demonstrated by Samsung in 1997. Samsung released the first commercial DDR SDRAM chip in June 1998.
EyeCan Samsung developed the first eye tracking mouse that doesn't require users to wear special equipment, called the EyeCan, in 2012. Flexible battery In 2012, researchers at KAIST demonstrated the first fully functional all-flexible electronic battery system. In 2013, scientists led by Professor Lee Sang-young of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology developed the world's first bendable lithium ion batteries. Floating-gate MOSFET (FGMOS) In 1967, Dawon Kahng and Simon Min Sze invented the floating-gate MOSFET, which provides the foundation for many forms of semiconductor memory devices. Graphics DDR SDRAM (GDDR SDRAM) GDDR was initially known as DDR SGRAM (double data-rate synchronous graphics RAM). It was commercially introduced by Samsung Electronics in 1998. High Bandwidth Memory High Bandwidth Memory is a high-performance RAM interface for 3D-stacked DRAM developed by SK Hynix and AMD to be used in conjunction with high-performance graphics accelerators and network devices. LTE mobile phone Samsung released the world's first LTE mobile phone, the SCH-r900, in 2010, and the world's first LTE smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Indulge, in 2011. Metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) In 1959, Dawon Kahng (a Korean American) and Mohamed Atalla at Bell Labs invented the metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), a semiconductor that is the basic element in most of today's electronic equipment. It is the basic building block of the Digital Revolution, and the most widely manufactured device in history. MP3 phone The first mobile phone to support MP3 playback, the SPH-M2100, was released by Samsung in 1999. MP3 player The world's first commercially available MP3 player, the MPMan, was launched by SaeHan Information Systems in 1997. Online electric vehicle Researchers at KAIST developed an electric transportation system in which online electric vehicles (OLEV) get power wirelessly through the application of shaped magnetic field in resonance, a new technology introduced by KAIST that enables electric vehicles to transfer electricity wirelessly from the road surface. The world's first OLEV buses began operation at the city of Gumi in March 2014. Retina display Apple's "Retina" display was invented by LG and bought by Apple. Rollable keyboard The world's first solid rollable keyboard was introduced by LG in 2015. Synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) The first commercial synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) was the Samsung KM48SL2000 memory chip. It was introduced by Samsung Electronics in 1992, and mass-produced in 1993. Tablet computer The first commercially available tablet computer, the GridPad, was manufactured by Samsung in 1989 after it absorbed Grid Systems Corporation in 1988. The GRiDPad was modified from the Samsung PenMaster, which was never commercially released. Touchscreen phone The LG Prada is the world's first completely touchscreen mobile phone, and also the first mobile phone with a capacitive touchscreen. Transparent resistive random access memory Transparent resistive random access memory (TRRAM) is the world's first transparent computer chip, invented by scientists at KAIST. TV phone The world's first TV phone, the SCH-M220, was developed by Samsung in 1999. Universal Flash Storage The world's first UFS memory cards were developed by Samsung. Watch phone The world's first watch phone, the SPH-WP10, was released by Samsung in 1999. Wearable thermoelectric generator Researchers led by Byung Jin Cho at KAIST developed a glass fabric-based thermoelectric (TE) generator that is extremely light and flexible and produces electricity from the heat of the human body.
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