SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung recently traveled to Europe to explore future chip technologies, meeting with key officials of the Interuniversity Micro Electronics Center, according to industry sources Monday.

During his visit to the IMEC, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, Kwak met with his counterpart Luc Van den Hove and Max Mirgoli, executive vice president in charge of worldwide strategic partnerships, at IMEC, among others.

“It is fantastic when partnerships are based on friendship and trust and It was so great to welcome my dear friend, president and CEO of SK Hynix, Dr. NJ Kwak to IMEC on his European trip,” Mirgoli said in a LinkedIn post.

“SK Hynix has some of the most innovative products in the memory market but has the trust and partnership of some of the biggest players in the market and it is all because of the partner-focused culture that Dr. Kwak fosters in the company and his laser focus on innovation."

IMEC is a leading nonprofit semiconductor research center jointly established by Belgium, France and the Netherlands in 1984. Since its launch, the institute has operated precompetitive research and intellectual property licensing programs in logic and memory technologies, advanced patterning, 3D heterogeneous integration, integrated photonics, advanced radio frequency and more.

SK hynix first inked a strategic partnership with IMEC in 2007 to collaborate on research and development for sub-32 nanometer memory process generations.

While SK hynix has not confirmed the CEO's itinerary, industry observers believe Kwak would likely have visited key chip equipment companies such as ASML in the Netherlands during his trip to Europe.

He may have also met with partner carmakers for collaboration on automotive memory chips. In March, Kwak had described the European market as "not as big as that of China or the US," but having great potential in demand for automotive chips.

Kwak has returned to Korea and will be attending the 17th Semiconductor Day celebration event, organized by the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association. Kwak heads KSIA.

On Nov. 5-6, SK hynix is expected to unveil its semiconductor technology road map at the SK AI Summit set to take place at Coex in southern Seoul.