Samsung Electro-Mechanics to supply advanced substrates for AMD processors

Samsung Electro-Mechanics FCBGA manufacturing plant in Vietnam (Samsung Electro-Mechanics)

Samsung Electro-Mechanics, the electronic parts manufacturing affiliate of Samsung Electronics, announced Monday that it would supply high-performance substrates for hyper-scale data centers to AMD, the US chip design firm.

According to the company, the flip chip ball grid array (FCBGA) substrate offers larger surface areas and higher layer counts for dense interconnections, which means better operational efficiency and lower energy consumption.

The product will be produced at the company’s manufacturing plants in Korea and Vietnam.

“We are honored to be a strategic partner with AMD, a global leader in high-performance computing and AI semiconductor solutions,” said Kim Won-taek, executive vice president of strategic marketing at Samsung Electro-Mechanics.

“Our continued investment in advanced substrate solutions will provide key value to customers like AMD, addressing the evolving demands of data centers and other compute-intensive applications ranging from AI to automotive systems.”

Samsung said its collaboration with AMD focuses on meeting the unique challenges of integrating chiplets or multiple semiconductor chips, on a single large substrate.

Substrates are essential for the applications of central and graphic processing units. Compared to standard computer substrates, data substrates are 10 times larger, and feature three times more layers to ensure efficient power delivery and lossless signal integrity between chips, Samsung explained.

The products supplied to AMD, made with Samsung’s innovative manufacturing process, will address these challenges and mitigate issues like warpage to ensure high yields during chip mounting, Samsung added.

“At AMD, we are always pushing the edge of innovation to meet the performance and efficiency needs of our customers,” said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president of global operation manufacturing strategy at AMD.

“Our leadership in chiplet technologies has enabled AMD to deliver leadership performance, efficiency, and flexibility across our CPU and data center GPU portfolio. Continued investments with partners such as SEMCO highlight the work we are doing to ensure we have the advanced substrate technologies and capacity we need to deliver future generations of high-performance computing and AI products.”

Hyperscale data centers are critical data facilities of at least 22,500 square meters with at least 100,000 server units operating to process robust and scalable workloads.

The local semiconductor substrate market is expected to grow from 15.2 trillion won ($11 billion) in 2024 to 20 trillion won in 2028, showing an average annual growth rate of about 7 percent, according to market tracker Prismark.

Samsung said its investment of 1.9 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in its FCBGA factory underscores its commitment to advancing substrate technology and manufacturing capabilities to meet the highest industry standards and future technology needs.

The FCBGA factory is equipped with advanced real-time data collection and modeling capabilities, allowing the company to develop predictive manufacturing models that ensure signal, power and mechanical integrity.

Samsung said it has forged its leadership in the embedded substrates market, with both passive (capacitor and inductor) and active (integrated circuit) components.

By Jo He-rim(herim@heraldcorp.com)