三星在横滨启用AI芯片先进封装研发中心，强化与日本材料设备商协作

TOKYO -- Samsung Electronics opened an artificial intelligence chip packaging research center in Yokohama on Tuesday, aiming to speed technological advances by working more closely with Japanese companies that dominate back-end chipmaking processes like packaging equipment and materials.
"This will accelerate technological exchanges between South Korea and Japan and serve as a driving force for the growth of the next-generation packaging industry," Jun Young-hyun, the head of Samsung Electronics Device Solutions Division, said at an opening ceremony.
The roughly 6,600-square-meter Samsung Advanced Package Lab opened in the Minato Mirai district of Yokohama to research advanced back-end chipmaking processes. It includes a clean room where manufacturing equipment can be operated under conditions identical to those used in actual chip production.
Investment in the lab totals 40 billion yen ($257 million), including 22.5 billion yen in support from Japan's government. A staff of 95 Japanese and South Korean researchers will study materials and mass-production technologies for advanced packaging.
The South Korean company invited 15 major Japanese suppliers, including Tokyo Electron and Ibiden, to the opening ceremony.
"South Korea and Japan must cooperate more closely than ever before," a Samsung executive said.
Samsung established the lab in Japan, concluding that access to Japan's world-leading back-end technologies is essential to remain competitive in AI chips.
Semiconductor manufacturing is broadly divided into front-end and back-end processes. Chipmakers like Samsung traditionally have improved performance by shrinking the size of circuits on wafers -- part of the front-end processes.
But that concept is approaching its physical limits, shifting performance competition toward back-end packaging and assembly technologies that were once viewed as secondary.
Demand has surged for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI data centers. Manufacturers are now focusing on efficiently connecting multiple chips, including HBM and graphics processing units that handle computation, within the same package structure.
Packaging technology has grown increasingly complex, becoming "a new bottleneck," a Samsung executive said.
Japanese suppliers produce many of the critical materials used in HBM packaging including adhesives, substrates and encapsulation materials.
"We depend on Japanese companies for almost all key materials used in HBM," a Samsung executive said.
Japan's Sumitomo Bakelite holds about 40% of the global market for encapsulation materials, while Resonac Holdings and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical lead in substrate materials. Samsung said it works with more than 50 Japanese companies in the back-end processes of AI chipmaking.
Opening a research facility in Japan is expected to accelerate development. Previously, new materials developed by Japanese suppliers needed to be shipped to South Korea for testing, with regulatory approvals and import-export procedures sometimes delaying arrival by as much as two months.
In the rapidly evolving world of AI chips, such a delay can undermine competitiveness. The Yokohama lab will allow Samsung to complete evaluations and prototype development in Japan and transfer only the most promising technologies to its mass-production lines in South Korea.
Japanese companies also stand to benefit. Though large players involved in front-end processes have expanded into South Korea and expanded R&D capabilities near Samsung facilities, smaller suppliers focused on back-end processes often find such overseas investments difficult. The new lab will make it easier for such suppliers to collaborate on prototyping and development.
Samsung also hopes to use the increased collaboration with Japanese partners to regain momentum in the HBM field, where it has fallen behind South Korean rival SK Hynix.
Improved relations between Japan and South Korea have helped pave the way for Samsung's large-scale investment. Though advanced chip technologies involve highly sensitive intellectual property, a Samsung executive said the South Korean group has "no major concerns because Japanese companies are trustworthy."
The presence of South Korea's semiconductor industry in financial markets has grown dramatically over the past several years. Samsung's market capitalization stands at 1.8 quadrillion won ($1.34 trillion), according to QUICK FactSet, more than tripling from 533 trillion won at the end of 2023, when it announced the Yokohama project.
Together, Samsung and SK Hynix account for about 57% of the total market capitalization of South Korea's KOSPI, up from roughly 30% at the end of 2023.