Samsung has ordered a significant number of 2.5D bonding equipment from Japanese company Shinkawa, TheElec has learned.
The South Korean tech giant ordered 16 units of the equipment from the packaging firm, sources said.
Samsung already received 7 units and is likely to request the remaining when it needs them, they added.
This is most likely in preparation to supply Nvidia with HBM3 and 2.5D packages for their AI GPU memory board.
The order to Shinkawa being structured the way it is indicates that Samsung will add the 9 units when orders from Nvidia also increase.
Samsung’s HBM3, interposer, and 2.5D package will most likely be used on Nvidia’s GB100.
For the GPU itself, Nvidia doesn’t use Samsung Foundry but its main partner TSMC.
But for the packaging work, which is done after the GPU wafer is made, Nvidia is seeing enough demand to use both TSMC and Samsung __ which also makes memory chips and offers packaging services __ as well as Amkor.
Wafers for GB100 are expected to start fabrication around the year’s end at TSMC’s fabs.
Wafers take up to four months to fabricate so the assembly and packaging will likely start approximately during the second quarter of next year, so Samsung is preparing ahead of time.
