- Has developed an automotive FCBGA which is applied to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems: To become the no. 1 FCBGA company, Samsung Electro-Mechanics enters the automotive market.
- Used next-generation substrate technology, including large-size, multi-layer, and microcircuit approaches: Using a substrate the size of a passport photo, added more than 10,000 bumps to it.
- Increasing the range of automobile products to appeal to the high-end market: After becoming the first Korean company to release server products, it entered the autonomous driving semiconductor market.
Foray into the FCBGA Market:
On February 26, Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced the development of an automotive semiconductor substrate (FCBGA) for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and the expansion of its lineup of high-end automotive semiconductor substrates.
One of the most technically challenging automotive products is the newly developed FCBGA, which is a substrate for high-performance autonomous driving (ADAS) systems. Samsung Electro-Mechanics intends to sell this product to global customers and target the electric vehicle market in order to become the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end automotive semiconductor substrates.
Demand for Advanced Technology in Autonomous Vehicles:
For advanced technology, today’s autonomous vehicles require SoC (System on Chip) equipped with high-performance semiconductors.
As a result, an autonomous driving system necessitates a high-performance and high-reliability semiconductor substrate that can optimise the semiconductor’s performance so that it can process large amounts of data at high speeds without latency and operate reliably without problems even in extreme driving conditions.
Furthermore, as the semiconductor function for high-performance autonomous driving becomes more advanced, the number of packaged semiconductor chips and CPU cores per chip increases, causing the semiconductor substrate to become larger and multi-layered, as well as the number of bumps to increase.
Performance Enhancements:
The circuit width and spacing have been reduced by 20% compared to the existing substrate (for partial autonomous driving) and more than 10,000 bumps have been implemented in a constrained area the size of a passport photo by Samsung Electro-Mechanics, which has recently applied its microcircuit technology acquired in high-end IT products such as servers to automotive products.
By enlarging the substrate to accommodate multi-chip packages and enhancing the bending strength in accordance with the rise in the number of layers, the company also increased product reliability.
A multi-chip package is a device that holds multiple semiconductor chips on a single substrate in order to boost the performance of the chips.
Furthermore, because automotive semiconductors are directly related to safety, a high level of reliability is required to ensure safe operation in harsher environments (high temperature, high humidity, impact, etc.) than IT products. Further to that, as the level of autonomy increases, the performance and reliability of semiconductors used in vehicles become critical, underlining the importance of semiconductor substrates.
The new product received AEC-Q100 certification, which is a reliability test standard for automotive electronic parts, and can be used in a variety of fields ranging from vehicle body and chassis to infotainment and autonomous driving.
From the Executive:
“As the demand for high-end, high-performance semiconductors continues, FCBGA is becoming the key to differentiating semiconductor performance,” said Kim Eungsoo, Executive Vice President of the Package Solution Unit at Samsung Electro-Mechanics. Samsung Electro-Mechanics will continue to discover core manufacturing technologies based on our FCBGA technology, which is leading the global market, in order to increase quality competitiveness and expand our automotive FCBGA market share through increased production capacity.”
Market Leader Since Inception:
Since its inception in the package substrate business in 1991, Samsung Electro-Mechanics has been a global leader in the substrate industry, supplying products to major corporations worldwide. Among them, the company has the largest market share in its flagship semiconductor package substrates for mobile APs, as well as the most advanced substrate technologies in the world, such as being the first in Korea to develop FCBGA for servers, the most technologically challenging semiconductor substrate.
In order to increase the proportion of automotive products in its core businesses, such as semiconductor substrates, camera modules, and multilayer ceramic capacitors, Samsung Electro-Mechanics has recently established an organization focused on electric vehicles in major business units and is enhancing its array of automotive products based on technological prowess in implementing multi-layer, large-size, and microcircuit products (MLCC).