Reference News Network, July 27 report - According to the website of the "Nikkei" on July 25, South Korea is accelerating the localization of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. LG Electronics has announced its entry into the key equipment field indispensable for advanced semiconductor production, and the equipment giant Hanwha Semiconductor also plans to launch a new factory in 2026. Currently, the global semiconductor equipment market is dominated by companies from the US, Europe, and Japan, with South Korea's share only at 2%. South Korea is leveraging the growth in demand for generative AI semiconductor products in its areas of strength, to develop specialized equipment in this field in an effort to break through.
LG will start developing the next generation "hybrid bonding machine", an upgraded product of the key equipment "bonding machine" used to connect semiconductor wafers. For LG, which mainly operates in home appliances and displays, its semiconductor equipment business had previously remained at the research and development stage. According to Korean media reports, researchers from the company recently announced at a semiconductor exhibition in the suburbs of Seoul that they plan to complete the development of the "hybrid bonding machine" by 2028. The report also evaluated that LG could become a "potential dark horse in the semiconductor equipment market".
An important opportunity for LG to enter the semiconductor equipment manufacturing field is the continuous expansion of the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market under the wave of generative AI. HBM is a strong point for South Korean companies, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics together accounting for about 90% of the global market share. French Yole Intelligence predicts that by 2030, global HBM sales are expected to reach approximately $98 billion, three times that of 2025.
HBM is manufactured by vertically stacking memory chips. In this process, the equipment used to connect these chips is the hybrid bonding machine. In the semiconductor manufacturing process, this is part of the "post-process" after etching circuits on the wafer. With the continuous development of technologies that stack multiple chips to enhance performance, the importance of post-processing is increasingly evident. Compared to the "front-end process" monopolized by technology giants like Tokyo Electron, this field provides South Korea and other latecomers with an opportunity to catch up.
Industry insiders said that currently, HBM manufacturing mainly uses "thermal compression bonding machines," which achieve connections by heating adhesives. This is different from the conventional bonding machines used to attach ordinary chips to substrates, as it is a specialized equipment tailored for HBM production.
HBM increases data capacity and transmission speed by increasing the number of stacked layers. However, the more layers there are, the denser the chips become, and the risk of deformation and overheating also increases. Hybrid bonding machines can achieve bonding without adhesives, thus enabling the production of thinner and higher-density semiconductors.
Hanwha Semiconductor, which holds about 90% of the global market share in thermal compression bonding machines, plans to invest approximately 100 billion won (about 72 million USD) to build a dedicated factory for hybrid bonding machines in Incheon, with the goal of starting operations in 2026.
Hanwha Semiconductor has 120 patents related to HBM manufacturing and is cooperating with local South Korean manufacturers of semiconductor thin film deposition (film formation) and cleaning equipment. The company has clearly stated: "We aim to rank among the top ten global equipment suppliers by 2030."
According to industry insiders, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics also plan to fully introduce hybrid bonding machines in their semiconductor factories between 2026 and 2027 to mass-produce the next generation of HBM.
For South Korea, the localization of semiconductor manufacturing equipment has long been an issue. Semiconductor manufacturing involves thousands of processes and requires various precision equipment. This field has long been dominated by international giants such as Applied Materials from the United States, Tokyo Electron from Japan, and ASML from the Netherlands.
Data from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry shows that South Korea's share in the global semiconductor equipment market is only 2%. Although South Korea leads in a few fields such as thermal compression bonding machines, it is still far from achieving full localization of the semiconductor industry chain equipment. Considering economic security, the South Korean government has continuously called for improving the self-sufficiency of equipment and materials, and has allocated approximately 1 trillion won annually since 2020 for relevant R&D.
Kim Hyun-kyu, a senior director of the Korean Semiconductor Industry Association, estimates that the self-sufficiency rate of equipment used by South Korean semiconductor manufacturers, calculated by value, is only about 20%. He said: "In the bonding machine field, which has a relatively simple structure, domestic localization may make progress. However, in other process links, the technical strength of Japan and the US is too prominent to be caught up with. The situation of relying on overseas procurement will not change in the short term." (Translated by Shen Honghui)
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7531714883411460644/
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