TSI to expand socket and probe card production 

Semiconductor component maker TSI will wrap up the expansion of its factories in South Korea and China within the year, TheElec has learned.

This will allow it to mass produce more sockets and probe cards used in chip production.

TSI has been expanding its facility at Cheonan, South Korea since last year.

It is adding a three-story production line that will manufacture probe cards on the first floor and sockets on the second and third floors. The building will be completed in the fourth quarter this year.

Probe cards are used to connect the chips on wafers with test equipment while sockets are used for defects on the chips.

The new building at Cheonan will manufacture TSI’s new probe card for DRAM. It had mostly focused on probe cards for NAND in the past.

Probe cards for DRAM are more difficult to make and most South Korean chipmakers relied on imports from Japan.

Meanwhile, the new line in China is expected to be finished in the fourth quarter.

The company built the facility in late 2020 to service its main customer in China YMTC.

Expansion of both facilities in the two countries will add a production capacity worth 40 billion won, equivalent to 20% of the company’s current annual revenue.