Samsung to Begin Hybrid Bonding with 16-Layer HBM

According to reports, Samsung Electronics is expected to gradually adopt hybrid bonding technology starting with its 16-layer High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) products.

At the "Commercial Semiconductor Development Technology Seminar" held on July 22 in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, hosted by the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, Kim Dae-woo, Executive Director of the Next-Generation Research Team at Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions (DS) Division, stated: "Once HBM exceeds 16 layers, traditional thermo-compression (TC) bonding will no longer be feasible. We are preparing to introduce hybrid bonding starting from 16-layer HBM."

HBM is an advanced semiconductor technology that vertically stacks multiple DRAM chips to significantly increase data processing speeds. Bonding is the process used to connect these DRAM layers, with TC bonding currently playing a vital role in the manufacturing of HBM.

As the number of HBM layers continues to increase, reducing the stacking gap becomes critical, prompting the need for hybrid bonding technology. Hybrid bonding eliminates the conventional micro-bump (solder ball) structures and directly connects DRAM dies to copper, effectively reducing the overall thickness of the HBM package.

Samsung has confirmed that both TC bonding and hybrid bonding will be employed in its upcoming 7th-generation 16-layer HBM4E. Full-scale adoption of hybrid bonding is planned for the 8th-generation 20-layer HBM5.

The most recently commercialized product, HBM3E, supports up to 12 stacked layers and is expected to continue utilizing conventional bonding techniques through the 6th-generation HBM4 (16 layers). Hybrid bonding will be incrementally introduced beginning with the 7th generation.

Kim added: "If the pitch goes below 15μm, we will need to shift to hybrid bonding, which does not use solder. Hybrid bonding also offers better thermal performance, so we are actively researching its implementation."