[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] 3S Korea (3S) is showing strong performance. The news that it has signed a supply contract for chiplet process carriers with Silicon Box, a Singapore-based semiconductor chiplet packaging specialist, appears to have influenced its stock price. The carrier product used in semiconductor chiplet processes is the world's first applied product. To foster the chiplet ecosystem, Samsung Electronics has established the ‘UCIe (Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express)’ consortium with companies such as Intel in the U.S. and TSMC in Taiwan, indicating a high potential for rapid growth in the related market.
As of 11:31 AM on the 5th, 3S is trading at 3,020 KRW, up 9.62% from the previous day.
3S has been recognized for its performance in developing and supplying FOUPs (Fan-Out Panel Level Package) for semiconductor post-process packaging to mass production lines over the past six years. Since 2009, 3S has been the only domestic manufacturer producing wafer carriers for semiconductors, supplying 300mm FOSB to wafer manufacturers in Germany, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Japan, and Korea.
The supply contract was signed for an initial amount of 1.75 million USD (approximately 2.2 billion KRW). The contract includes a much larger scheduled quantity for additional supply, ensuring continuous supply contracts. 3S expects a significant impact on its business performance.
Silicon Box is a semiconductor chiplet packaging specialist company with investments totaling about 2 trillion KRW, including Singapore government funds. It is currently ordering and manufacturing production and automation equipment for multiple domestic and international companies, aiming to operate facilities in the third quarter of this year by applying breakthrough optimal technology to improve semiconductor yield.
The semiconductor post-process industry has slowed in growth and profitability since 2015 due to the smartphone industry's stagnation and vertical integration by foundry companies. Recently, as foundry process technology has advanced to below 5 nanometers and the number of input/output (I/O) pins on semiconductor chips has rapidly increased, the post-process industry is gaining renewed attention.
Domestic securities firms forecast that the global post-process industry will grow from 40 billion USD in 2010 to 90 billion USD in 2025, at an average annual growth rate of 6%. The recent strengthening of packaging sectors by domestic semiconductor companies to enhance foundry business is also related to this trend.
A 3S company official explained, "The ordered quantity is about the minimum amount for initial production line trial operation," and added, "If normal operation and future expansion occur, additional order quantities will increase significantly."
He continued, "Recently, inquiries about products from overseas post-process companies have increased, and some companies have made considerable progress," emphasizing, "We expect additional contracts."
Furthermore, he stated, "Although we were latecomers in the 300mm wafer carrier for semiconductors, we will strive to become a global leader in technology and market in the semiconductor post-process carrier field."
Chiplet refers to small constituent units or IP (Intellectual Property) block units that make up a processor. It is a technology that builds processors using multiple chiplets performing different functions as building blocks, developed to overcome the performance limits and high costs of traditional monolithic chips. In March this year, leading global semiconductor, packaging, IP providers, foundries, and cloud service companies (ASE, AMD, Arm, Google Cloud, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, TSMC) formed an industry consortium to standardize die-to-die interconnects and create an open chiplet ecosystem.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
