Hanmi Semiconductor opens new bonder factory

South Korean chip equipment company Hanmi Semiconductor Co. said on Wednesday it has opened a new factory to boost the production of dual TC bonders, essential process equipment for the production of high bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors.

HBM is touted as a next-generation memory semiconductor specialized for high-performance AI operations. To produce HBM, a dual TC bonder, which can attach multiple DRAMs using a thermal compression method, is necessary. Hanmi Semiconductor has been developing and producing this equipment since 2016, and this year it has transitioned to this as its main business. 

The new factory, located in Incheon City, was built by utilizing the third of five factories with a total scale of over 20,000 square meters owned by Hanmi Semiconductor. The third factory, completed in 2016, was originally used to assemble and test the company's equipment. Now it has been transformed into a factory dedicated to dual TC bonders and other TC bonders.

"The third factory has a large clean room that can assemble and test about 50 semiconductor equipment at a time, providing an optimized environment for Dual TC Bonder production," a Hanmi Semiconductor source said.

Write to Ye-Rin Choi at rambutan@hankyung.com