The move aligns with emerging JEDEC standards and big tech demand, as Samsung and Micron accelerate similar advanced packaging roadmaps.
SK hynix is securing a strategic advantage by early adopting an integrated hybrid bonding solution. (Photo courtesy of SK Hynix)
A forecast has emerged that SK hynix will launch its eighth-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM5) as early as 2029, while also moving to apply hybrid bonding in earnest at the mass-production stage.
Counterpoint Research, a market research firm, said on April 6, “By early adopting an integrated hybrid bonding solution from Applied Materials (AMAT) and BE Semiconductor Industries (BESI), SK hynix is securing a strategic advantage that can meet a wide range of future performance requirements, including bandwidth, latency, power, and speed,” and made the above assessment.
Hybrid bonding (HCB) is an ultra-precision joining technology that directly bonds copper to copper when stacking semiconductor chips, without inserting intermediate “bumps” (solder protrusions). By minimizing the spacing between chips, it can dramatically reduce overall thickness, and it also significantly improves data transfer speeds and heat dissipation performance, and is “evaluated as a game changer.”
For current HBM products, due to the relaxation of standards by JEDEC (an international standards body), it is possible to use thermo-compression bonding (TCB) up to a maximum of 16 layers. However, as specification requirements from major big tech customers, including NVIDIA, are gradually rising, it is inevitable in the long term that hybrid bonding will be adopted.
Accordingly, the so-called memory “Big 3”—Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron—are pushing to introduce hybrid bonding starting with generations after HBM4 in order to respond to next-generation AI demand. Samsung Electronics is introducing hybrid bonding equipment from its subsidiary SEMES to its Cheonan campus, in an atmosphere of accelerating internalization. SK hynix is also reported to have ordered related technology development from equipment suppliers such as Hanmi Semiconductor and Hanwha Semitec ahead of full-scale hybrid bonding process verification in April~May of this year.
Counterpoint Research projected that HBM5 will be a watershed in hybrid bonding competition. The firm assessed, “We expect SK hynix to launch HBM5 around 2029∼2030 in line with the next AI graphics processing unit (GPU) cycle,” adding, “The introduction of hybrid bonding equipment is expected to provide an important strategic advantage in maintaining leadership in the HBM market.”
Kim Eun-jin
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