SK hynix has strengthened its dominance in the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market by becoming the first to mass-produce the 5th generation HBM, HBM3E DRAM, and supply it to the American semiconductor company Nvidia, following its success with HBM3.
On March 19, SK hynix announced that it would supply its latest high-performance AI memory product, HBM3E, to its client Nvidia by the end of this month, starting mass production for the AI developers conference (GTC 2024) held by Nvidia from March 18 to 21. This comes just seven months after SK hynix announced the development of HBM3E in August last year.
SK hynix stated, “Following HBM3, we are the first to supply customers with HBM3E, which achieves the highest performance among existing DRAM. We plan to continue our competitive advantage in the AI memory market by successfully mass-producing HBM3E.”
Earlier, U.S.-based Micron gained industry attention by announcing plans on Feb. 26 (local time) to supply 24 GB HBM3E in 8 stacks for Nvidia’s latest GPU, the H200, expected to launch in the second quarter (April to June) of this year. However, SK hynix is known to be the first to mass-produce for actual delivery. An industry insider mentioned, “SK hynix has been producing HBM3E since the end of January and has been testing the product with Nvidia. Micron started production at the end of February, but it’s known that they haven’t reached a production volume sufficient for delivery.” There are significant doubts within the industry regarding the initial production yield and capacity of Micron’s HBM3E products.
The decisive factors in the next-generation HBM market among the three companies are considered to be yield and stacking methods. As DRAM are stacked higher, the HBM thickness increases, leading to challenges in heat control. The physical pressure applied when chips are stacked also causes bending issues.
To overcome these challenges, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have adopted different stacking methods. Samsung Electronics uses an Advanced Thermal Compression Non-Conductive Film (TC NCF) method, which involves inserting a non-conductive adhesive film between DRAM to bind the HBM, while SK hynix employs the Advanced Mass Reflow Molded Underfill (MR-MUF) method, which injects a liquid protective material between processes and hardens it.
An industry insider noted, “With its technological superiority in HBM3, SK hynix is expected to continue its strong partnership with Nvidia in the HBM3E market. However, as Samsung Electronics introduces the industry’s largest capacity 12-stack HBM3E as a game changer, the competition for high-stack HBM is expected to intensify.”
As the AI semiconductor market expands, the proportion of HBM sales in DRAM revenue is rapidly increasing. Market research firm TrendForce predicts that the share of HBM sales in total DRAM revenue will rise from 2.6% in 2022 to 8.4% in 2023, and further to 20.1% this year. The production capacity for HBM is also expected to significantly increase this year. Last year, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix produced about 45,000 wafers per month each, but this year, the production is expected to increase to 130,000 wafers for Samsung Electronics and 120,000 to 125,000 wafers for SK hynix. Micron, ranking third in the HBM market, is expected to produce 3,000 wafers per month last year and 20,000 wafers per month this year.