[Chipformation] 'Driving Packaging Advancement' Semiconductor Equipment No.1 AMAT

Applied Leading Global Semiconductor Equipment
Expands Business as Industry Interest in Packaging Grows
"Will Establish Leadership in Heterogeneous Integration" Announced

Applied Materials is the leading company in the global semiconductor equipment market. With a market share of 22.5% (as of 2021), it offers a variety of equipment in the semiconductor front-end process (the process of producing semiconductor chips from wafers) and counts major global semiconductor companies as its clients. Since the company was founded in the United States in 1967, it has expanded its business beyond semiconductors to the display sector, and has now become a global company with bases in more than 120 cities across 24 countries worldwide.

It entered South Korea in 1989 and collaborates with leading companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. It operates 12 domestic offices in total, including Hwaseong, Icheon, Cheonan, and Pyeongtaek, where its clients’ production facilities are located, employing over 2,100 staff members. Last year, sales in Korea accounted for 17% of global sales (25.79 billion USD), representing a significant portion. Currently, it is actively conducting business by localizing its supply chain and engaging in industry-academia cooperation with domestic universities.

Last year, it attracted industry attention by announcing plans to establish a research and development (R&D) center in Korea. Since major companies in the global memory and foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) markets are located in Korea, the company plans to strengthen cooperation by establishing its first front-end research institute in Korea among its global bases. Park Kwang-sun, president of Applied Materials Korea, emphasized the significance of establishing the domestic research center, stating, "There is no such case overseas, and there are no plans for it in the near future."

The business area that Applied Materials has recently been focusing on is 'packaging.' Due to the limitations of semiconductor fine processes, technological improvements are difficult despite massive investments, and packaging has emerged as a new alternative in the semiconductor industry. The company is paying attention to 'heterogeneous integration' packaging, which bundles various semiconductor pieces with different functions to operate as if they were a single semiconductor. It has also set a goal to "build leadership in heterogeneous integration technology."

In July, Applied Materials introduced new technology for heterogeneous integration manufacturing. This technology relates to hybrid bonding and through-silicon via (TSV) technologies that can be applied to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for artificial intelligence (AI), which has recently attracted high industry interest. The company expressed its ambition to raise the industry’s packaging standards by introducing innovative equipment that improves PPACt (Power, Performance, Area, Cost, and Time to market).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.