① SK Group's director, Tae-yong Choi, visited Absolics' glass substrate manufacturing plant. Absolics is a subsidiary of SKC, which is under SK Group. ② Currently, the Absolics factory has started trial runs, and Tae-yong Choi has met with the CEO of a leading technology company to sell Absolics' glass substrates. Customer validation is expected to be completed in the second half of this year.
The world's first semiconductor packaging glass substrate factory is about to enter mass production, according to the STAR Daily Report on July 8.
According to the South Korean Daily Economic News, Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, recently visited Absolics, a subsidiary company located in Corning County, Georgia, USA, where the world's first semiconductor glass substrate manufacturing factory is located. Prior to this, Absolics had been producing glass substrate samples on a test line located in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.
It is reported that the Absolics factory has started trial running, and Chey Tae-won has met with the CEO of a major tech company to sell Absolics' glass substrates, and is expected to complete customer verification in the second half of this year.
Glass substrate is seen as a more competitive choice than commonly used organic substrate materials in current chip packaging processes. As early as 2023, Intel, which had bet on glass substrates, said that glass substrates could increase the chip area in a single package by 50%, thereby squeezing in more chiplets and extending the life of Moore's Law.
According to a report by Tom's Hardware, glass substrates have better thermal and mechanical stability, laying the foundation for applications in data-intensive work, such as artificial intelligence (AI). In addition, due to the flatness of glass substrates, the optical proximity effect (OPE) can be reduced by 50%, improving the focus depth of lithography.
In fact, many manufacturers have laid out glass substrates besides SK Group.
Intel plans to achieve mass production of glass substrates between 2026 and 2030, and has increased orders from multiple equipment and material suppliers. Earlier, it rented a vacant LCD panel plant from Sharp as an advanced semiconductor technology research and development center, and the industry speculated that it aimed at glass substrate packaging technology.
Samsung Motors plans to purchase and install equipment related to glass substrates in September, and start trial production in the fourth quarter.
Apple previously discussed with suppliers the application of glass substrate technology in chip development to provide better heat dissipation performance and maintain peak chip performance for longer periods of time.
On the materials side, Corning said in May of this year that it hopes to expand its share of the semiconductor glass substrate market through special proprietary technology. The company said it is preparing to launch a 'glass core' for chip packaging, and is providing samples to multiple potential customers.
Although countless manufacturers are competing for it, glass substrates are not flawless. Some practitioners have pointed out that although glass can overcome warpage and has good electrical properties, its disadvantages include being fragile and difficult to process.
In other words, whether Absolics can successfully achieve mass production of glass substrates, and even fulfill its performance promises, depends on various parameters during this trial run and the specific situation of customer verification.
According to Prismark, the global IC packaging substrate industry is expected to reach 21.4 billion US dollars by 2026. With the entry of major chip giants, the substitution of glass substrates for silicon substrates is expected to accelerate, with a penetration rate of 30% expected within three years and over 50% within five years.
A research report by Yuanda Securities on June 26 pointed out that under the trend of high-performance chips, glass substrates are expected to be applied more in the field of advanced packaging due to their excellent thermal and electrical properties. Related manufacturers have already made arrangements, and the TGV process is a necessary technology for glass substrates in advanced packaging. Domestic laser equipment manufacturers have already reserved laser-induced etching technology. Suggestions for attention: 1) Advanced packaging: JCET Group, etc. 2) TGV equipment: Wuhan DR Laser Technology Corp., Ltd., etc.