The entrance to SK hynix in Seongnam, south of Seoul. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – SK hynix Inc., the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker, is developing next-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM) products to meet booming global demand for artificial intelligence and higher performance computing, a senior executive said Tuesday.
“Demand for improvement in memory bandwidth is increasing following a spike in data traffic in the era of AI and high-performance computing,” Lee Kang-wook, head of package development at SK hynix, said during a session of Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, in Taipei.
“HBM has been widely adopted as the memory product for AI servers and high-performance computing,” he added.
HBM is a high-performance DRAM in high demand, particularly for U.S. AI chip giant Nvidia Corp.’s graphics processing units, which are key components for AI computing.
SK hynix is leading the market with fifth-generation HBM3E products. Its latest 12-layer HBM3E products are scheduled for mass production in the third quarter.
Lee Kang-wook, head of package development at SK hynix Inc., is seen in this photo provided by the company. (Yonhap)
Lee also highlighted that the sixth-generation HBM4 will offer higher memory capacity, faster data processing speeds and improved efficiency compared with HBM3E due to technological advancements, such as the adoption of the logic process on the base die.
The technological and performance improvements in HBM have fueled growing demand, particularly in the generative AI market, which is projected to grow at an average rate of 27 percent between 2023 and 2032. As a result, the HBM market is expected to expand by an average of 109 percent between 2022 and 2025.
To keep pace with this rapidly growing market, SK hynix is focusing on packaging technologies, specifically mass reflow-molded underfill (MR-MUF). This technology, introduced by SK hynix with HBM2E in 2019, injects a liquid protective material between stacked chips, significantly reducing heat.
Building on MR-MUF technology, SK hynix plans to ship 12-high HBM4 products next year and aims to launch 16-high HBM4 products by 2026.
In addition, SK hynix announced plans to strengthen its cooperation with global tech giants, such as Nvidia, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc., to solidify its leadership position in the HBM market.
“SK hynix has also been enhancing its collaboration with global partners in creating the ecosystem to meet various customer demands in a more efficient way as customization becomes a trend from HBM4E,” Lee said.
(Yonhap)
