Samsung is already in talks with material manufacturers, including Japan’s Nagase to source MUF materials.
Samsung Electronics plans to adopt a chip-making technology used by its rival SK Hynix to boost the production of high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, for powering artificial intelligence applications. Samsung, who traditionally used non-conductive film (NCF) technology for chip-making, could adopt the mass reflow molded underfill (MR-MUF) method.
The company has recently issued purchase orders for chip-making equipment designed to handle the MUF technique, indicating a shift in its approach to ramp up. HBM production yields.The company plans to use both NCF and MUF techniques for its latest HBM chips, but mass production of high-end chips using MUF is unlikely to be ready until next year
This decision comes as Samsung seeks to catch up in the AI chip race, where it has lagged behind SK Hynix and Micron Technology in supplying HBM chips to Nvidia, the leader in AI chips. Samsung has relied solely on the NCF technology that causes some production issues which could have led to it lagging behind. In contrast, SK Hynix switched to the MR-MUF method, which addresses the weaknesses of NCF.
Samsung claims that its NCF technology is sufficient and has issued a statement saying “rumours that Samsung will apply MR-MUF to its HBM production are not true”. But sources say that Samsung is already in talks with material manufacturers, including Japan’s Nagase to source MUF materials.
The company’s HBM3 chip production yields are significantly lower than SK Hynix’s. Samsung’s HBM3 yields are estimated at about 10-20%, while SK Hynix has secured about 60-70% yield rates for its HBM3 production.
The HBM chip market is expected to more than double this year to nearly $9 billion, driven by AI-related demand. SK Hynix’s success in switching to the MR-MUF technique has allowed it to become the first vendor to supply HBM3 chips to Nvidia, securing a dominant market share in HBM3 and more advanced HBM products.
The non-conductive film chip manufacturing technology is a method used by chipmakers to stack multiple layers of chips in a compact high bandwidth memory (HBM) chipset. This technique involves using a thermally compressed thin film to minimize the space between stacked chips, allowing for higher memory density and improved performance.
One of the challenges with this approach is the use of adhesive materials, which can lead to manufacturing complications as more layers are added. To address these challenges, chipmakers like Samsung are exploring alternatives to traditional adhesive materials. For example, Samsung’s latest HBM3E chip uses 12 chip layers but likely employs advanced manufacturing techniques to reduce the reliance on adhesive materials.
