SK hynix leads HBM market with early investment in stacking tech: company official

SK hynix Inc.'s early commitment to advanced chip stacking technology has been a key driver of the Korean chipmaker's recent success in the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market propelled by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, a senior official at the company said Monday.

"We have consistently focused our research and development efforts on stabilizing through-silicon-via (TSV) technology and building the necessary infrastructure," Kim Chun-hwan, vice president of SK hynix, said in an interview with the company's newsroom. "And finally we succeeded in mass producing HBM."

TSV is a packaging technique used to precisely connect stacked chips, one of the core technologies for SK hynix's HBM, using stacked DRAM chips to provide high-speed data transfer and low power consumption.

In 2009, SK hynix predicted a surge in demand for high-performance memory and focused on TSV technology. Four years later, the company introduced its first HBM to the market, setting the stage for its leadership in this space.

Kim, who joined SK hynix in 1992, has dedicated himself to TSV development for about 15 years.

"TSV is a technology that enables high capacity, high bandwidth by drilling microscopic holes in the chip, connecting the top and bottom chips with electrodes and stacking them," he said. "In the early stages of development, it was very challenging because it required a high degree of precision and fine control."

SK hynix is currently leading the AI memory market, offering fifth-generation HBM3E products. The eight-layer HBM3E products have been supplied to Nvidia Corp., whose AI accelerator is critical for AI computing, since March.

The chipmaker plans to ship its latest 12-layer HBM3E chips before the end of this year. A 16-layer version is slated for launch in the first quarter of next year and the sixth-generation HBM4 in the second half of 2025. (Yonhap)