Samsung Expands MDI Alliance to Challenge TSMC’s Dominance
In June 2023, Samsung initiated the MDI Alliance for 2.5D and 3D packaging technologies, aiming to address the rapid growth of the chiplet market in mobile and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. Collaborating with partners and major players in memory, substrate packaging, and testing, Samsung seeks to establish an ecosystem for 2.5D and 3D heterogeneous integration packaging technologies, offering a one-stop service to robustly support customers’ technological innovations.
According to Business Korea, Samsung has been intensifying its efforts in semiconductor packaging technology, attempting to narrow the technological gap with TSMC. Samsung plans to expand the MDI Alliance this year, increasing the number of partners from 20 to 30, thus adding 10 partners in just one year.
As the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers continues to surge, stacking and combining different chips is considered more cost-effective and efficient than further shrinking the circuit size within chips. This has made 2.5D and 3D packaging technologies increasingly attractive to tech giants, with designs combining CPU/GPU and HBM within a single package becoming more prevalent.
Industry insiders note that integrating CPUs and GPUs, which are manufactured using different design philosophies, poses significant challenges. Although Samsung benefits from a one-stop solution encompassing wafer foundry, HBM products, and packaging technologies, it still faces various software challenges associated with chip integration. To better address these issues, Samsung has formed alliances with chip design companies, testing and packaging firms, and electronic design automation (EDA) suppliers.
TSMC also launched the 3DFabric Alliance in 2022, offering comprehensive, first-class solutions and services for semiconductor design, memory modules, substrate technology, testing, manufacturing, and packaging. TSMC has dominated the advanced packaging industry with its CoWoS packaging, while Samsung aims to break TSMC’s barriers using packaging technologies such as i-Cube.
