With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US.
With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions.
Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according to industry experts.
Photo courtesy of SEMI via CNA
Chipmakers are ramping up capacity to meet this demand, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which is aggressively expanding packaging capacity in both Taiwan and the US, industry sources said.
The company already operates five advanced packaging facilities in Taiwan and is planning four more, while in the US it is partnering with Amkor Technology Inc to build new CoWoS and InFO capacity in Arizona as part of its record US$165 billion global investment plan.
TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said demand for AI chips remains strong, and the company is working to narrow the gap between tight supply of CoWoS advanced packaging and robust market demand.
ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) is likewise ramping up CoWoS lines in Kaohsiung and through subsidiary Siliconware Precision Industry Co (矽品精密) in central Taiwan, and has pledged further investment through next year.
ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) said demand for advanced packaging is only just beginning, and the company plans to continue increasing investment in the segment through next year.
Market estimates suggest TSMC’s monthly CoWoS output will double to 70,000 wafers by year-end and exceed 90,000 by the end of next year, according to industry sources.
On the testing side, King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子) is raising capital expenditure to a record NT$37 billion (US$1.21 billion) for AI chip testing.
Taiwanese firms are also investing in FOPLP, with Innolux Corp (群創光電), Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技), ASE, Hiwin Technologies Corp (上銀科技) and Utechzone Co (由田新技) expanding operations. Global players such as NXP Semiconductors NV, STMicroelectronics NV, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Qualcomm Inc are adopting panel-level packaging for power management and radio frequency chips, with potential AI applications ahead, industry sources said.
Semicon Taiwan will run from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 1.
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