ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest IC packaging and testing services provider, held a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday for its new advanced production facility in Kaohsiung.
Construction of the K28 plant, expected to be completed in 2026, will expand ASE’s chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging capacity, the company said in a statement.
The new plant is the second phase of a plan to build two factories on a two-hectare plot in Kaohsiung’s Dashe District (大社) in response to growing demand for CoWoS advanced packaging and final testing services.
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Economic Development Bureau
The first phase of the plan, the K27 facility, was completed and began operations last year.
ASE and affiliate Hung Ching Development and Construction Co (宏璟建設) are collaborating on the K28 plant, with ASE providing the land and Hung Ching the capital and construction know-how, ASE Kaohsiung Plant general manager Raymond Lo (羅瑞榮) said in the statement.
The new factory, designed to have seven floors above ground and one floor underground, will be built with low-carbon building materials and equipped with energy-saving and energy-efficient equipment and solar panels, the company said.
ASE said the K28 facility, its first to have an anti-microvibration design, will represent a step forward in smart manufacturing technologies and automation.
More than 400 engineers have been assigned to focus on automation, developing software, equipment and procedures such as automated coding that will allow the factory to be much less reliant on workers.
ASE has been expanding its advanced assembly technology capacity in Kaohsiung beyond the K27 and K28 facilities.
In August, ASE said it had signed an agreement to acquire a facility coded K18 in Kaohsiung’s Nanzih District (楠梓) from Hung Ching for about NT$5.26 billion (US$163.41 million) to expand its sophisticated IC pumping packaging and flip chip packaging capacity.
Additionally, in late December last year, ASE announced it had leased buildings from ASE Test Inc in Nanzih to expand its packaging capacity. The industry believed that those moves were aimed at increasing packaging capacity for AI chips.
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