Existing DRAM team handling HBM3E
Samsung is taking a two-track approach to its development of high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
The company’s newly formed HBM development team, which was turned into a permanent office from a task force in March, is focusing on the development of HBM4, sources said. HBM4 is the sixth-generation iteration of the memory chip that is in high demand from it being paired with AI chips.
Meanwhile, HBM3E, which will go into mass production soon, is being handled by Samsung’s existing DRAM design team, sources said.
This is being done to speed of the development of HBM, they added.
The HBM development team is under the direction supervision of Lee Jung-base, Samsung’s head of its Memory Business. The company is beefing up the team by reshuffling key staff.
For HBM4, Samsung is planning to provide samples to customers next year and being mass production in 2026.
Rival SK Hynix said it is planning to start mass production of a 12-stack HBM4 in late 2025, which means Samsung could start its own production faster than planned as well.
Samsung dismantled its HBM development team in 2019, which gave an opening to SK Hynix to take a huge share of the market through HBM3.
Samsung believes it can retake the leadership spot through HBM4 and believes it can make them better than its rival, the sources said.
The tech giant thinks its way of making HBM, thermal compression non-conductive film (TC-NCF), from its warpage resistant qualities, will allow it to make HBM with higher stacks compared to SK Hynix, they said.
Another advantage Samsung believes it has is Samsung Foundry. Starting with HBM4, the logic die on the bottommost layer of the HBM is expected to be made with foundry processes. Rival SK Hynix is planning to collaborate with TSMC for this.