According to Korean media citing industry sources, Samsung Electronics' Memory Business has recently set up a dedicated backend process organization within its etching technology team.
The business unit plans to complete its staffing by the end of this month and officially commence operations at the Pyeongtaek campus, with an initial headcount of approximately 30. Although it falls under the existing technical team and is relatively small in scale, the core characteristic of this team is that its members are almost entirely senior engineers from various fields.
Reports indicate that the new organization has recently been conducting research on several key issues, focusing on how to master core backend process technologies for high-value-added storage products such as HBM4 (sixth-generation High Bandwidth Memory). It has also discussed supporting plans, including personnel allocation and supply chain reinforcement.
HBM4, which began mass production and shipments in the first half of this year, integrates 2,048 input/output (I/O) interfaces, doubling the number from the previous generation. I/Os serve as data communication channels; the more interfaces there are, the faster the chip's data processing speed. However, due to the limited chip area, increasing the number of I/O interfaces requires denser routing and continuous shrinkage of line widths. This necessitates a significant improvement in the formation precision of metal routing, thereby raising the technical threshold for etching processes. The core function of the etching process is to precisely etch away excess materials outside the target areas on the wafer.
Industry insiders noted that HBM is currently the core focus of Samsung Electronics' backend process sector, and the discussions of the newly established team are centered around related technologies. However, as the organization has just been set up, its specific development roadmap and quantified technical targets will be refined and implemented in the future.
