Samsung has placed a significant order for thermal compression bonders from its subsidiary Semes. The use of TC bonders is essential for stacking DRAMs, which are crucial for the production of high bandwidth memory (HBM) and DDR5. This order suggests that Samsung is likely to prioritize advanced DRAM production this year.
The memory chip prices have been gradually increasing since late last year, indicating that the market is still in the recovery phase according to sources. Despite the recent downturn that resulted in a drop in memory chip prices over the past couple of years, there has been a steady demand for advanced DRAM chips, particularly from their utilization in servers and data centers.
However, the demand for NAND is anticipated to remain low throughout this year. In addition to the TC bonders, it is expected that Samsung has also placed orders for Syndion, used for through silicon via etching, and Damascene SABRE 3D made by Lam Research. Both of these pieces of equipment are utilized in the production of HBM.
Samsung and SK Hynix are gearing up to expand their production capacity for 1a and 1b DRAM in response to these developments.
