A major transformation may be underway in semiconductor manufacturing. The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced that it will award $75 million to Absolics, a subsidiary of South Korean chemical company SKC, under the U.S. CHIPS Act. The funding will go toward Absolics' development of glass semiconductor substrates and the construction of production facilities.
First CHIPS Act Investment for Advanced Semiconductor Materials
SKC is a chemical manufacturer belonging to the same South Korean SK Group as SK hynix, well known for memory manufacturing. Absolics is an affiliate 80.6% owned by SKC, established in 2021. It makes sense for the SK Group to manufacture cutting-edge substrates in-house.
Absolics has revealed plans to make a massive investment of $240 million in a 12,000-square-meter facility, beginning small-scale production of glass semiconductor substrates in late 2024 and scaling up to mass production by 2026. The investment is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 200 jobs in manufacturing and R&D.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, this marks the first CHIPS Act investment in a commercial facility manufacturing new advanced materials for the semiconductor industry.
"A key part of the success of President Biden's CHIPS program is ensuring that the United States is a global leader in every part of the semiconductor supply chain. The advanced semiconductor packaging technology that Absolics is working on will help achieve that goal," said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
Glass substrates are set to play a pivotal role in the proliferation of advanced packaging technology. Unlike substrates that rely on traditional organic materials, glass substrates are used to facilitate die-to-die interconnect interposers for multi-die packaging, offering superior flatness, thermal conductivity, and mechanical stability. This is expected to ultimately enable higher chiplet density and smaller form factors, leading to improved performance.
In the press release issued by the Department of Commerce, Absolics CEO Jun Rok Oh stated, "With the support of the proposed CHIPS funding, Absolics is positioned to fully commercialize our groundbreaking glass substrate technology for applications in high-performance computing and cutting-edge defense systems."
Intel and Samsung have also already announced their development of glass semiconductor substrates, and Samsung was recently reported to be accelerating its original plans.
Apple is also looking toward the future of glass substrates, and has reportedly already been in discussions with several companies.
Sources