South Korean semiconductor materials firms are expected to see their supply decline for the remainder of the year as memory chip makers reduce their NAND production output.Some companies have reduced as much as over 50% of their material supply for NAND production compared to last year, sources said

Thermal compression (TC) bonders are in high demand from the launch of high bandwidth memory (Hbm) and 3D packaging by chipmakers.Accordingly, chipmakers are diversifying their suppliers. Samsung is procuring them from Toray, Shinkawa, and its own subsidiary Semes, sources said.Meanwhile, SK Hynix i

Samsung Electronics has given exclusive licensing rights of its 96 patents related to semiconductors to one of its IP subsidiaries, a move that could indicate that the tech giant may use patent lawsuits to protect its business interests in the sector.The company gave the rights over the 96 US patent

Samsung unveiled new chips that combine memory and processor chips at Hot Chips 2023 conference on Tuesday.The chips, high bandwidth memory (HBM)-processing in memory (PIM) and LPDDR-PIM, are aimed at future AI applications, the tech giant said.Applying these chips for generative AI applications wil

Intel has successfully secured a higher-than-expected yield for its Intel 4 process, the company’s VP told TheElec.William Grimm, Vice President and Director of Product Engineering for Logic Technology and Development at Intel, said in an interview with TheElec at Penang, Malaysia, that the chip gia

SK Hynix said on Monday that it has given a sample of its HBM3E to a customer.High bandwidth memory connects DRAM vertically to increase their speed and is currently in high demand from AI applications.HBM3E is an expansion of HBM3 with a further increased speed of 1.15TB per second.The South Korean

Atomic force microscope (AFM) equipment maker Park Systems recorded 34.9 billion won in revenue and 10.1 billion won in operating profit in the second quarter.The earnings beat market consensus and is a growth of 139% and 7352%, respectively, from a year ago.The high growth is also noticeable as the

South Korean 8-inch chip foundries, just like their Taiwanese counterparts TSMC and Vanguard International Semiconductor, have lowered their service prices this year from low demand from the IT sector, TheElec has learned.Their transition to 12-inch foundries has also impacted their drop in service

Fab equipment maker DIT has begun supplying laser annealing equipment to chip giant SK Hynix, TheElec has learned.Annealing equipment is used to repair wafers that are damaged after ion injection.During the ion injection process, Group 3 or Group 5 dopants such as B, I or As are injected into the wa

South Korean chip fabless company Netsol is planning to supply its first magnetic random access memory (MRAM) to a Chinese customer, the company CEO told TheElec.Niche memory chips, excluding DRAM and NAND flash, accounted for 5% of the total memory chip market, Netsol CEO Kim Woo-jin said.Out of th

SK Hynix has unveiled a 321-layer NAND flash at a conference in the US.The South Korean chip giant unveiled the 321-layer 1Tb triple-level cell NAND flash at Flash Summit 2023 in Santa Clara on Tuesday.SK Hynix is the first memory chip maker to unveil a NAND with over 300 layers.The company said its

Chip and electronics material company Soulbrain is planning to acquire precursor maker DNF, TheElec has learned.The deal is expected to close within the year and is reportedly worth around 100 billion won, sources said.Soulbrain Holdings, the holding company of the Soulbrain group, will be the acqui

Research into applying wafer-to-wafer (W2W) technology in the DRAM sector was very active, according to EV Group.This was because the application of W2W hybrid bonding solution could improve the productivity of products such as high bandwidth memory, EV Group Korea General Manager Justin Yun said du

Competition in the advanced die bonder market is intensifying. Besi, ASMPT, and Hanmi Semiconductor have all announced expansion plans in the thermal compression (TC) bonder sector.TC bonders are used to bond individual chips on processed wafers. They started to become in high demand with the launch

Chip design house ASICLAND was developing a new packaging technology to improve the cost of customer TSMC’s chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS).CoWoS has room for improvement in performance and power consumption compared to integrated fan-out and organic substrate package, ASICLAND manager Kang Sung-

LB Semicon has acquired battery recycling company GSM.The chip back-end company said it acquired all the company shares for 20 billion won.LB Semicon acquired a 60% stake for 12 billion won and LB a 40% stake for 8 billion won.The new subsidiary will collect scraps and used batteries made during bat

Samsung’s chip division recorded a steep operating loss of 4.36 trillion won in the second quarter due to the global economic downturn that is causing weak demand for IT products.However, inventory of chips peaked in May and is declining, the South Korean tech giant said, a sign that demand for chip

3D SoC with hybrid bonding applied was the way to overcome the current limitations of microfabrication the chip industry is facing, according to Inha University Professor Rino Choi.And for application of hybrid bonding, back side power delivery network, and other advanced technologies, there need to

Even in high bandwidth memory (HBM) hybrid bonding may be needed to pack in more layers within the confines of the package.This is according to SK Hynix Wafer Bonding Head Kang Ji-ho, who said during a local chip conference hosted by TheElec that HBM with 12-layer or higher can face problems in heig

SK Hynix said on Wednesday that it has recorded 2.9 trillion won in operating loss in the second quarter this year.This means that the South Korean chip giant recorded 6.3 trillion won in operating loss in total for the first half of the year, as the down cycle of the global chip market continues.Ho