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Wednesday 22 October 2025
The Packaging Pivot Driving AI Chip Performance
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the semiconductor landscape-both as a fast-growing end market and as a catalyst for innovation across mobile, automotive, networking, industrial and beyond. Taiwan's industry leaders are at the forefront of this transformation, proactively developing next-generation packaging technologies critical to AI semiconductor content.AI workloads are driving demand for specialized chip architectures that can process massive amounts of data quickly and efficiently. In data centers, high-performance AI chips-such as GPUs or AI accelerators-support large-scale model training and inference for applications like AI chatbots. At the edge, devices rely on high-efficiency chips like NPUs to enable real-time decision-making in applications such as autonomous vehicles, smart cameras and mobile devices.This shift in computing architecture depends on advanced packaging. By enabling higher performance and power efficiency through a tighter integration of compute and memory, advanced packaging supports the sophistication and scale of modern AI chips. Taiwan's expertise in advanced packaging and its expansive semiconductor supply chain are accelerating this shift.Why Heterogeneous Integration is Key to PerformanceMoore's Law scaling is becoming more expensive due to the complexity needed to keep increasing transistor counts. As a result, innovation is diversifying. Technologies like high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet (high-NA EUV) lithography and new transistor designs such as gate all around (GAA) continue to push traditional scaling. Developments with backside power delivery (BPDN) are improving overall raw performance by providing a more stable power supply. Breakthroughs in semiconductor packaging are now playing an increasingly pivotal role.Semiconductor packaging has evolved beyond protecting and connecting chips to powering device performance. At the heart of this shift is heterogeneous integration-the ability to combine multiple chips or chiplets in a single package. This modular approach offers a flexible, cost-effective way to integrate diverse functions in packaging instead of on a single chip, to meet requirements without relying solely on traditional scaling.Advanced Packaging Technologies Enabling AIAI chips are growing in complexity, with some expected to contain up to a trillion transistors per package by the end of the decade. Advanced packaging supports this growth through system-level integration of compute and memory.High bandwidth memory (HBM) plays a key role. By stacking memory vertically and placing it close to the GPU, HBM reduces latency and boosts data transfer speeds while lowering power consumption. Interposers and substrates facilitate efficient communication between components. In many modern AI designs, hundreds of logic and memory chips are integrated into a single high-value package to meet specifications.Credit: KLATo support the growing architectural demands and evolving semiconductor chip requirements, the industry is advancing 2D, 2.5D and 3D packaging architectures-where 2D places chips side-by-side on a substrate, 2.5D arranges them on an interposer and 3D stacks them vertically. Technologies like hybrid bonding, embedded bridges, wafer- and panel-level interposers, glass core substrates and co-packaged optics help to increase interconnect density and improve system performance. These innovations provide new ways to shorten signal paths to increase bandwidth and reduce power loss-critical for AI workloads.Advanced Packaging Innovation Brings Manufacturing ChallengesAs packaging complexity increases, so do manufacturing challenges. More chip designs per package, larger die sizes, smaller features, denser interconnects and new materials all raise the bar for packaging yield management.Credit: KLAWith more components and interconnects placed into a single package, the number of potential failure points increases. A single chip or interconnect defect can compromise the entire multi-die package-resulting in costly yield loss. In this environment, tighter process control becomes essential to ensure high yield and reliability.Heterogeneous integration brings challenges similar to those found in front end semiconductor manufacturing, demanding greater defect sensitivity and tighter metrology precision. KLA addresses these challenges with a comprehensive portfolio of advanced packaging process control and process-enabling solutions-for wafers, panels and components – designed to scale advanced packaging complexity without compromising quality.Evolving 2.5D and 3D packaging architectures create new yield challenges that need improved process and process control solutions.Credit: KLAAI Needs Intelligent IntegrationThe semiconductor industry is anticipated to reach US$1 trillion globally by 2030, according to PwC in November 2024, driven by a wide range of applications-including the rapid growth of AI from data centers to edge devices. AI demands high compute capacity with optimized power use, pushing the boundaries of semiconductor chip design and integration. Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturers welcome these opportunities.It's widely recognized that 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors are produced in Taiwan, contributing to a combined semiconductor output value that exceeded NT$5 trillion in 2024, up 22.4% from 2023, according to statistics released by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Global demand for AI chips is surging.AI is also driving a diversification of semiconductor content. Wide band gap semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) provide higher power density, faster switching, and better thermal efficiency than silicon, making them increasingly important for efficient power delivery in AI systems.In data center and HPC environments, AI growth is also pushing development in photonics and co-packaged optics for network switches to improve data transfer speeds and energy efficiency. Quantum computing, still in early stages, could eventually reshape how complex AI workloads are processed.Across these domains, advanced packaging serves as the foundation for uniting diverse technologies into compact, high-efficiency systems. Taiwan technology leaders are driving this advanced packaging innovation, and KLA is proud to serve as their collaborative partner.2025 marks the 35th anniversary of KLA's operations in Taiwan. Headquartered in the United States, KLA is a global leader in semiconductor inspection and metrology, with over 15,000 employees worldwide. The expertise and insights cultivated at KLA Taiwan over three decades, in partnership with our valued customers, underscore a commitment to technical excellence in the AI era-when chip manufacturing requirements are more complex and challenging than ever before.The future of semiconductors isn't just about smaller transistors – it's about smarter integration. Packaging has become essential to performance. At the boundaries of Moore's Law, advanced packaging has emerged as the key to meeting next-generation semiconductor device requirements.With deep expertise in process, process control and customer collaboration, KLA is helping the semiconductor industry build what comes next. As AI redefines what's possible, the technologies that support it must evolve just as rapidly. KLA's dedicated team of engineers, physicists and data scientists embraces the scale and significance of this transformation, helping shape the future of semiconductor innovation in the AI age-where advanced packaging plays a pivotal role.
Wednesday 22 October 2025
GMIF2025: Samsung Semiconductor: Unlocking the Boundless Potential of the AI Era with Full-Stack Memory Innovation
The Fourth GMIF2025 Innovation Summit (Global Memory Innovation Forum) recently wrapped up in Shenzhen. Themed "AI Applications, Innovation Empowered, "GMIF2025 represented as a gathering of leading enterprises, technical experts and industry leaders across the memory sector to explore pathways for technological evolution and emerging opportunities driven by AI. Kevin Yoon, VP and CTO of Memory Division from Samsung Electronics, delivered a keynote titled "Architecting Al Advancement: The Future of Memory and Storage", unveiling a series of cutting-edge solutions and providing a glimpse into the challenges and innovation directions of memory technologies.Kevin Yoon, VP and CTO of Memory Division from Samsung Electronics. Credit:GMIFMemory is Embracing an Architecture Reconfiguration with the Advent of Agentic AI EraAccording to the address by Kevin Yoon, AI is evolving from Generative AI to Agentic AI and will progress toward Physical AI. The memory industry is now officially transitioning into the Agentic AI era. Characterized by independent inference and decision-making capabilities, the Agentic AI is demanded to maintain multiple states over time built on top of generative AI and invoke external tools without noticeable latency. This shift is fueling explosive growth in global data and computing workloads."The inference of Agentic AI requires longer periods to achieve optimal outcomes, resulting in surging needs of memory capacity," Kevin Yoon underlined, data centers are transitioning into data-intensive computing mode in a fast manner. Therefore, memory technologies goes beyond a backend underpinning to become the determinant of AI system efficiency and scalability. Legacy storage architectures are faced by exponential bandwidth demands, power consumption nearing physical limits, and increasing latency constraints, so the memory hierarchy must be restructured to meet the needs of next-generation intelligent infrastructure.Dual-Track Advances in Memory: Samsung Mass Produces GDDR7 and Leads the CXL EcosystemRegarding high-bandwidth needs of AI servers, Kevin Yoon announced its major breakthroughs. Its first-ever 24Gb GDDR7 in mass production establishes deep collaborations with leading GPU partners. Engineered with leading-edge process and optimized IC architecture, it delivers transfer rate up to 42.5Gbps, a 30% enhancement in energy efficiency compared to last-gen products, making it stand out in AI training and graphics rendering.Compute Express Link (CXL) stands as a promising solution to address the capacity limit of DRAM. Samsung, the first to debut CXL products, has already mass-produced CXL 2.0 products benefited by its technology and ecosystem development since 2021. Kevin Yoon noted that as the industry moves into the CXL 3.0 era, Samsung is developing devices that support real-time memory sharing across multiple servers. A CMM-D solution with CXL 3.1 and PCIe Gen 6.0 compatibility is scheduled for launch next year, with plans to add full-feature support such as near-memory processing to further improve flexibility and scalability in data centers.All-Around Innovation: Advancing Performance, Density and Thermal ManagementIn memory sector, Kevin Yoon introduced Samsung's technology layout and product roadmap in terms of three major indicators: high performance, high density and thermal control. On the performance front, Samsung is tackling the challenges posed by interface upgrades to PCIe through coordinated design across NAND and controllers and is planning to launch its PCIe Gen6 SSD PM1763 in early 2026. This brand-new versions is expected to offer doubled performance under the power consumption limit of 25W and a 1.6-fold energy efficiency improvement, making it ideally suited to GPU-intensive AI computing scenarios.With respect to high-density storage, Samsung is clearly ahead of the pack. It launched a 128TB U.2 SSD in 2025 and plans to roll out 1T-thickness EDSFF products between 2026 and 2027, pushing capacities to 256TB on Gen5 and 512TB on Gen6. These leaps are powered by Samsung's advanced 32-layer stacked packaging and the slim form factor of EDSFF, enabling higher density and better energy efficiency in limited space.To address the thermal challenges of high-performance storage, Kevin Yoon explained that Samsung is pivoting from traditional air cooling to direct liquid cooling technologies. By reducing the thickness of its E1.S 8TB SSDs from 15T to 9.5T and minimizing thermal resistance between cold plates and enclosures, this will ensure system stability under full-load conditions for next-generation storage products.New Product Category: Memory Class Storage Ushers in a Low-Latency EraTo support the rapid-access needs of AI inference on small data blocks, Samsung introduced a new category called Memory Class Storage (MCS), designed to close the performance gap between storage and compute. A key use case is GPU Initiated Direct Storage (GIDS), where data moves directly between storage and the GPU, dramatically cutting system latency.The company is now developing seventh-generation Z-NAND, the key medium behind MCS. Its third-generation product, tailored for GIDS, is expected to deliver throughput well above current industry benchmarks while maintaining ultra-high performance and peak energy efficiency. "Memory Class Storage will reset expectations for AI inference speed and underpin real-time intelligent applications," Kevin Yoon emphasized.In closing, Kevin Yoon stated that through full-stack innovation in memory and storage, Samsung not only aims to solve AI-era data management challenges but also unlock the full potential of AI technologies. Moving forward, Samsung will continue to push technical boundaries and work with global partners to build an open storage ecosystem and co-create an intelligent future empowered by AI.Honored for Excellence: Outstanding Storage Technology Leadership AwardThe GMIF2025 Innovation Summit, in addition to in-depth discussions of technological evolution and ecosystem collaboration in the AI era, also announced an award list that highlighted outstanding enterprises, innovative technologies, and exemplary solutions that have emerged in the storage field over the past year. As an industry leader, Samsung Semiconductor has continued to make major strides in both DRAM and NAND technologies and was honored with the "Outstanding Storage Technology Leadership Award."Samsung Semiconductor honored with Outstanding Storage Technology Leadership Award. Credit:GMIFThe judging committee noted that as AI fuels surging demand for high-bandwidth, energy-efficient storage, Samsung has moved fastest in bringing advanced technologies like HBM, DDR5, LPDDR5X and high-stack 3D NAND into large-scale production and real-world use. These innovations have helped accelerate large-model training, data-center upgrades and next-generation smart devices, giving global customers a much stronger technology backbone.The award also reflects Samsung Semiconductor's long-term investment in R&D and its role in continuously pushing the limits of storage performance and enabling digital transformation worldwide. The company reaffirmed that it will keep driving memory innovation, deliver cutting-edge solutions across the ecosystem and help advance AI adoption globally.GMIF2025 brought together top industry leaders and the keynote by Kevin Yoon offered a clear view of where storage technology is heading in the AI era. From agentic AI and breakthroughs in GDDR7 and CXL to progress in high-density storage and thermal design, Samsung is clearly at the forefront. Its introduction of Memory Class Storage adds an entirely new approach to AI inference. Moving forward, Samsung will continue working with partners around the world to unlock the next wave of storage possibilities and power an AI-driven intelligent future.
Wednesday 22 October 2025
GMIF2025: Wallace C. Kou of Silicon Motion: From Cloud to Edge, Controller Technologies Accelerate AI Application Innovation
The Fourth GMIF2025 Innovation Summit (Global Memory Innovation Forum) was successfully concluded recently in Shenzhen. Under the theme "AI Applications, Innovation Empowered", the GMIF2025 of the year brought together leading representatives across the global memory industry chain to engage in in-depth discussions on compute-storage convergence, AI deployment, and ecosystem collaboration, exploring pathways for storage technology innovations and ecosystem development in the AI era.Wallace C. Kou, President and CEO of Silicon Motion. Credit:GMIFWallace C. Kou, President and CEO of Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, was invited to deliver a keynote speech titled "From Cloud to Edge: Silicon Motion's Controller Technologies Accelerate AI Application Innovation." Wallace offered an in-depth analysis of the transformation of storage architectures in the AI era and showcased Silicon Motion's latest breakthroughs and product roadmap in controllers under AI.In his keynote, Wallace highlighted that as AI shifts from training to inference, data volumes are surging from PB to ZB levels. Traditional storage architectures are increasingly inadequate for the stringent needs of AI, particularly in high throughput, low latency, and energy efficiency. AI applications are pushing the memory industry evolving from "tiered storage" to "compute-storage convergence" and even "in-memory computing", making storage no longer merely a "warehouse for data" but a critical part of the AI computing pipeline."The rapid development of AI has made storage an indispensable core element in the entire value chain," said Wallace, "From cloud data centers to edge devices, AI inference will become the dominant trend after 2026. With leading controller technologies, Silicon Motion is building a full-stack storage solution that spans cloud, edge, and endpoints."Data Centers: The PCIe Gen5 SSD controller SM8366 supports sequential read/write speeds of 14GB/s and 3.5M IOPS random reads/writes. Equipped with Silicon Motion's in-house LDPC error-correcting algorithm, it ensures high reliability for high-capacity QLC SSDs.Edge & AI PCs: The PCIe Gen5 SM2508 series is in mass production with over 50% global market share. It supports the SCA interface and low-power design, making it ideal for AI PCs, all-in-one systems, and edge servers.Automotive & Embedded: The Ferri-SSD, Ferri-UFS, and Ferri-eMMC product families are purpose-built for harsh operating environments. Certified to the AEC-Q100 standard, this product lineup features wide-temperature tolerance, high reliability, and superior data integrity to meet storage needs in autonomous driving systems.Ecosystem Synergy: A Call for Industry CollaborationWallace emphasized that the future of AI storage requires deeper industry collaboration and urged stakeholders across the value chain to join forces to address the potential storage chip shortages forecasted for 2026. He noted that demand will surge due to the rise of AI inference devices, the popularization of TB-level storage in smartphones, and explosive growth in IoT terminals, while production capacity remains insufficient.Despite global uncertainties tied to geopolitics and tariffs, the structural demand for storage driven by AI remains unchanged. Wallace predicted 2026 will mark an inflection point for AI inference and edge AI, and Silicon Motion is well-positioned to seize this new growth cycle."From GPU Direct Storage to DPU architectures, from cloud to edge, no single company can achieve product innovation alone," Wallace said. "Silicon Motion will continue deep collaboration with NVIDIA, cloud service providers, and OEM/ODM partners to jointly build a thriving AI storage ecosystem."Award Recognition: "Outstanding Controller Technology Innovation Award"At its booth, Silicon Motion also showcased its latest-generation products, including SM2508, SM2504XT, SM2708, SM2324, SM2264XT-AT, and SM2268XT2-AT, as well as cutting-edge technology platforms such as MonTitan, FDP (Flexible Data Placement), PerformaShape, Ferri-SSD, Ferri-UFS, and Ferri-eMMC. SMI highlighted the value these solutions deliver to downstream device development, technological innovation, and industry applications.At its booth, Silicon Motion also showcased its latest-generation products. Credit:GMIFIt's worth noting that GMIF2025 had recognized the outstanding enterprises, innovative technologies, state-of-the-art solutions in the storage and memory sector over the past year, and the award list was concurrently released.Silicon Motion received the "Outstanding Controller Technology Innovation Award" in recognition of its leadership and innovation in controller technologies.According to the judging panel, Silicon Motion has demonstrated forward-looking technical deployment by being among the first to launch high-performance PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers. The company has also achieved continuous breakthroughs in key areas such as low-power architecture, firmware algorithm optimization, and AI acceleration solutions, significantly enhancing the performance, efficiency, and reliability of memory products. Its innovative solutions are widely deployed in PCs, portable devices, and enterprise markets, providing strong technical support for global ecosystem partners.Silicon Motion stated that the award reflects high recognition of the company's long-term R&D commitment and innovation strength. Looking ahead, the company will continue to explore frontier technologies and expand the boundaries of storage with more advanced and reliable controller products to empower the digital era.SMI Honored with"Outstanding Controller Technology Innovation Award". Credit:GMIFFrom cloud to edge, AI is reshaping the value map of storage and memory and remodeling the innovation dimensions of controllers. The insights shared by Wallace at GMIF2025 were beyond a technological vision and more of an open invitation to industry co-creation. As the world races into the Zettabyte era, industry progress will be collective-or not at all.Silicon Motion's achievements are demonstrated through the extreme performance of PCIe Gen6, large-scale deployment of Gen5, and stringent automotive-grade reliability, proving that controllers can act as the "invisible engine" driving leaps in AI computing power. Being honored with the "Outstanding Controller Technology Innovation Award" makes that dedication visible to the industry and trusted by partners. The storage landscape in 2026 will be a battleground of demand and supply, but only synergy across chips, systems, cloud, edge, and devices can turn scarcity into shared opportunity.By refining controllers into the key that unlocks innovation and scale, performance and efficiency, present and future, Silicon Motion is ready for the next leap-together with its ecosystem partners-to open the next door of AI storage and memory, where every byte of throughput becomes a step forward for intelligent computing.