AMD to Adopt Glass Substrates for CPUs
Business Korea reports that AMD intends to adopt glass substrates for its ultra-high-performance SiPs between 2025 and 2026.
AMD reportedly will use glass substrates for its data center products aimed at artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. Performance requirements for AI and eventually, generative AI applications are almost infinite, so processors for GenAI workloads are poised to adopt the latest technologies to get all the speed they can.
Building large monolithic chips is becoming more costly than creating several smaller chiplets and placing them on an interposer or a substrate from a yield perspective. Furthermore, more performance gains can be obtained by adding chiplets than just using a new production node.
IFTLE has previously discussed rumors that the glass core substrates being scaled up by Absolics (a US subsidiary of Korean SKC Corp,) must have some large US customers awaiting supply.
While current published rumors tend to point to Intel and Samsung as the potential suppliers, IFTLE does not think either Intel or Samsung will be really before late 2020s/early 2030s. IFTLE speculates that the potential supplier is Absolics (SKC), which is bringing up a facility in Ga to produce glass core interposers/substrates as we speak.
Also recall that Absolics has been the recent recipient of CHIPS onshoring monies.
The U.S. Department of Commerce and Absolics have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) to provide up to $75 million in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act to help advance U.S. technology leadership. The proposed CHIPS investment would support the construction of a 120,000-square-foot facility in Covington, Georgia, and the development of substrates technology for use in semiconductor advanced packaging.
The Dept of Commerce reports that “Absolics glass substrates will be used as an important advanced packaging technology to increase the performance of leading-edge chips for AI, high-performance compute and data centers by reducing power consumption and system complexity.
The glass substrates produced by Absolics enable smaller, more densely packed, and shorter-length connections resulting in faster and more energy-efficient computing. Currently, the advanced packaging substrates market is concentrated in Asia, and, because of this proposed CHIPS investment, U.S.-based companies would have an expanded domestic supply of glass substrates for advanced packaging.”
IFTLE thinks this is possibly the linkage, however, supply cannot possibly be ready by 2025/26 from any of the potential suppliers.
SK Hynix May Partner with Amkor on Silicon Interposers
Digitimes reports that talks are underway between SK Hynix and Amkor to enter the silicon interposer market.
There is a global silicon interposer shortage because it’s a key technology for 2.5D packaging and more recently essential to manufacture AI accelerators such as Nvidia’s H100.
SK Hynix plans to send its high bandwidth memory (HBM) and interposers to Amkor for Amkor to assemble with GPUs to produce AI accelerators thus alleviating the interposer shortage that restricts the current AI chip market.
SK Hynix’s rumored move in the interposer market may also be meant to hold off market challenges from Samsung Electronics, who is trying to provide packaging for Nvidia’s AI chips using Samsung’s interposer and their I-Cube technology. This could lead to Samsung also supplying the HBMs for these AI processors under a turnkey solution in the future, displacing SK Hynix. Currently, Samsung has yet to win orders from Nvidia for its HBMs.
Certainly, SK Hynix is capable of manufacturing silicon interposers. I think what we see now is the business case that makes it all make business sense. If Hynix concludes that this is necessary to keep its share of the AI market, IFTLE could just see this happening!
300mm Wafer Production coming to the US
The U.S. Department of Commerce and GlobalWafers America (GWA), LLC and MEMC LLC (“MEMC”), subsidiaries of GlobalWafers Co. have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms to provide up to $400 million in proposed direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act to help onshore critical semiconductor 300mm wafer production.
“With this proposed investment, GWA will play a crucial role in bolstering America’s semiconductor supply chain by providing a domestic source of silicon wafers…” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. This investment will reportedly create over 2,000 jobs across Texas and Missouri.
Five companies, including GWA, currently hold over 80% of the global 300mm wafer manufacturing market and approximately 90% of silicon wafers are sourced from East Asia today. As a result of this proposed CHIPS investment, GWA would build and expand facilities in:
- Sherman, Texas: Establish the first 300mm silicon wafer manufacturing facility in the United States.
- Peters, Missouri: Establish a new facility to produce 300mm silicon-on-insulator (“SOI”) wafers. Importantly, SOI wafers allow for significantly improved performance in harsh environments and are commonly used in defense and aerospace end uses.
Further, as part of the agreement, GWA plans to convert a portion of its existing silicon epitaxy wafer manufacturing facility in Sherman, Texas to silicon carbide (SiC) epitaxy wafer manufacturing, producing 150mm and 200mm SiC epitaxy wafers. SiC epitaxy wafers are a critical component for high-voltage applications, notably including electric vehicles and clean energy infrastructure.
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