Samsung has been trying hard to recover its lost semiconductor business. It is now reportedly adding hologram technology to its chip packaging line. This will help inspect semiconductor chips in 3D, allowing the company to find problems and increase yield. As a result, the Korean firm will be able to produce better chips and win more orders from major clients.
Samsung brings Hologram tech to chip production
For uninitiated, a hologram is a 3D stereoscopic image made using light that helps engineers see inside and around the chip in three dimensions, which is very useful for discovering small problems. According to a report from Korean outlet Sedaily, Samsung has completed the approval test for using hologram equipment from optical technology company Cubic Cell in its mass production line.
The company is planning to use hologram technology for chip inspection at its Cheonan factory. It will inspect 2.5D packaging that combines several chips into a single high-performance product. Samsung has adopted this technology due to the increasing demand for 2.5D packaging.
Modern semiconductor products often combine multiple chips to boost performance. For example, Nvidia’s AI chip Blackwell combines a graphics chip (GPU) and multiple high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips together on a single substrate.
While packaging technology is improving, the equipment used to check for defects is hitting its limits. Even the most advanced microscopes can only focus on a small area at a time. This makes it difficult to thoroughly examine every part of a complex 2.5D chip.
Thanks to Cubic Cell’s hologram technology, which allows the capture of 3D data of a chip in just one shot. It can display the chip as a 3D image that makes the inspections more accurate as well as efficient. In comparison with the 2D inspection equipment from companies like Camtec and KLA, this new 3D tech can improve wafer throughput by 50-450%. On top of that, its clarity range is up to 140 times better and can even see defects inside the chip, depending on the type of light.
Samsung may win more orders in the future
As Samsung is struggling to secure packaging orders from major clients in its foundry business, the introduction of hologram technology could be a good decision to attract customers and improve chip yield. “Samsung has recently been making various attempts to increase the yield of the foundry front-end process and packaging,” an industry insider told the publication. “I understand that they are particularly working hard to secure the Chinese high-performance chip market.”
