Samsung Electro-Mechanics to boost sales of high-end chip substrates

Samsung Electro-Mechanics, the electronic parts manufacturing affiliate of Samsung Electronics, said Sunday it will ramp up the sales portion of high-end flip chip ball grid array (FCBGA) substrates for servers and artificial intelligence to over 50 percent by 2026.

FCBGA is a semiconductor package substrate applied to high-performance semiconductors, such as central processing units and graphic processing units for servers and PCs. It can be used in various applications requiring high-performance and high-density circuit connections.

"When semiconductors can be called a 'brain in a body,' the substrates are the 'bones,' 'nerves' and 'blood vessels,'" Hwang Chi-won, head of the package development team at Samsung Electro-Mechanics, said.

The demand for high-end semiconductor substrates is expected to almost double in four years from 4.8 trillion won ($3.62 billion) in 2024 to 8 trillion won in 2028, with next-generation technologies such as AI and servers growing fast. Samsung Electro-Mechanics said it will boost the sales of those advanced FCBGA substrates to over 50 percent of its total sales, and secure the increasing orders.

With the expertise it accumulated over the past three decades, the company succeeded in mass-producing FCBGA products for servers in Korea in October 2022. In July, Samsung secured a supply contract with global chip company AMD to provide high-performance computing FCBGA substrates for servers.

"Server FCBGA is one of the most technologically challenging products among semiconductor substrates, and only a few companies around the world are capable of producing high-end server substrates on a large scale," Hwang said.

Server central processing units and graphic processing units must integrate multiple chips on a single substrate for high performance. For that, server FCBGA substrates are over four times larger and have more than twice as many layers of over 20, compared to the products for PCs, requiring specialized manufacturing technologies to ensure product reliability and yield, the company said.

Samsung boasts its cutting-edge technologies that enable the production of advanced semiconductor substrates. According to Hwang, the company has the industry's top-level technologies for forming super fine circuits and via-hole.

The electronic parts maker seeks to increase sales of high-value FCBGA for high-end chip substrate markets for AI, networks and autonomous driving as well.

To secure a footing in the high-value market, Samsung has invested about 2 trillion won to build advanced high-end production facilities in Busan in Korea and Vietnam, the company said.

In the Vietnam plant, the company adopted an automated logistics system and an intelligent manufacturing system to ensure stable production. The smart factory system automatically collects and analyzes all operational data in real-time, and AI and deep learning technologies are employed to optimize the manufacturing process, the company added.

"We will continue to lead the substrate market with our unique and cutting-edge technologies, and strengthen partnerships with industry giants," Hwang said.