Samsung reevaluating plan to invest in FoWLP

Samsung Electronics is reevaluating its plan to invest in fan-out wafer-level package (FoWLP), TheElec has learned.

The company originally planned to spend around 200 billion won to manufacture the package at its Cheonan plant to apply them in Exynos application processors.

According to sources, in a recent meeting of executives, which included Samsung CEO and president of its chip business Kyung Kye-hyun, test and system packaging head and executive vice president Chang Sung-jin and package development executive vice president Choi Kyong-se, the participants expressed their skepticism over the spending plan.

The executives believed that even if they build a production line for FoWLP, the line won’t be fully utilized as demand for the packages isn’t guaranteed without secured customers.

Major potential customers Samsung Mobile and Qualcomm were also lukewarm in their reception of the plan.

This is because these customers believed that they can increase the performance of their application process with the current package-on-package (PoP) method being used.

Samsung began planning to spend on FoWLP production last year. It planned to use existing bumping equipment at its Cheonan facility which would have saved cost. 

The spending volume was also considered overall less than it would have been for panel level package (PLP).

If the spending plan for FoWLP proceeded as originally planned, the package would have been applied first for the successor to the recently announced Exynos 2200 processor, sources said.

Another problem was the existing PLP line at its Cheonan facility was currently not as high as Samsung wanted, they said. The line makes packages for chips used in smartwatches such as the Galaxy Watch series.

However, Samsung will in the long-run likely look to expand FoWLP production, they added.