SK hynix vice president in charge of PKG Development, Lee Kang-wook, gave quite a keynote speech recently at the Semicon Korea 2024 event in Seoul, South Korea.

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Lee Kang-wook said: “Packaging has evolved from enhancing the value of products in the past to creating new business opportunities. Next, it may determine the survival of companies. Packaging solves both technical and economic issues of semiconductors and drives industrial innovation“.

He continued: “Previously, the law of addition applied, where packaging merely enhanced product value. Now, it’s the law of multiplication. Even if a company excels in design and device manufacturing, without packaging capabilities, it cannot seize business opportunities“.

“Companies centered on fab technology need to continue investing trillions of won, which reduces profitability. However, advanced packaging requires relatively smaller investments while creating new business opportunities, thereby increasing corporate value“.

He added: “The most important keyword in the AI era is processing large amounts of data. HBM maximizes AI’s learning and inference performance by increasing bandwidth, saving space, and improving power efficiency“.

“Initially, we stacked 4 layers, and now we are mass-producing up to 12 layers. The 6th-generation HBM (HBM4) will have 16 layers. We are developing stacking technology centered on hybrid bonding because we don’t know how far we can go with 20, 24, or 32 layers“.