Samsung Electronics is promoting a dual-track packaging strategy and plans to complete the construction of a new factory in Onyang within this year and officially introduce equipment starting next year. The factory will be used for advanced packaging production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to spread the production capacity pressure of the Cheonan factory, while moving the existing general-purpose DRAM packaging production line in Onyang to Vietnam.
According to semiconductor industry news, Samsung Electronics’ new factory in Onyang is about to be completed. The factory will deploy advanced packaging production lines based on through silicon via (TSV) technology. As a high value-added product, HBM needs to go through the DRAM pre-process and then go through packaging processes such as TSV drilling, vertical stacking and thermocompression bonding. Currently, Samsung Electronics completes the pre-DRAM process at the Pyeongtaek factory, and the Cheonan factory is responsible for packaging.
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As global HBM demand surges, Samsung Electronics is accelerating the construction of Pyeongtaek 4 Factory (P4) and plans to launch the first phase of Pyeongtaek 5 Factory (P5) in the second half of the year. Part of the production lines of P4 and P5 will be used to produce 1c nanometer DRAM required for the sixth generation HBM4. In order to match the expansion of front-end processes in Pyeongtaek, Samsung Electronics needs to expand its TSV packaging production capacity. Industry insiders pointed out that the C1, C2, and C3 production lines of the Cheonan factory are already operating at full capacity and cannot be expanded further, while the Onyang factory has more space, so it chose to expand here.
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Samsung Electronics plans to transfer some of Cheonan's advanced packaging personnel to Onyang, and at the same time move its general DRAM packaging personnel in Onyang to Vietnam to gradually realize dual-track product packaging. The plan is expected to be carried out in phases within five years, and the personnel have not yet been actually transferred. The Vietnam factory will initially dispatch a large number of Korean employees to set up production lines, and will gradually increase the proportion of local employees in the future.
Samsung Electronics’ HBM sales this year are expected to more than triple year-on-year. Among them, HBM4, which will be mass-produced and shipped in February, will expand supply in the second half of the year and account for more than half of the company's total HBM sales from the third quarter. This year's HBM4 orders have all been sold out, and the company plans to expand HBM production capacity by about 50% compared to last year to cope with global demand.