Samsung To Introduce “SAINT” 3D Packaging Services By 2025 In Preparations For HBM4

Samsung is all set to launch its cutting-edge "SAINT" 3D packaging services next year, which are targeted at next-gen HBM4 memory production.

Well, it looks like the Korean giant is looking to excel in the AI industry through new and advanced offerings. Now, Samsung aims to excel in the HBM segment through its next-gen 3D packaging services. According to a report by the Korea Economic Daily, Samsung is all set to provide 3D packaging services by 2025, which is expected to be in preparation for the next HBM memory standard, the HBM4, which will debut by 2026.

In terms of the details of Samsung's 3D packaging, it is a successor to the 2.5D method, and this time, instead of using a silicon interposer to connect the HBM and GPUs, the Korean giant decided to focus on vertical integration by stacking multiple chiplets on top of each other. Samsung plans to call this the SAINT (Samsung Advanced Interconnect Technology) platform and has segregated the packaging into three types: SAINT-S, SAINT-L, and SAINT-D. They all deal with different chips, such as SRAM, Logic, and DRAM.

Samsung's 3D packaging technology offers several benefits over traditional 2.5D. With vertical stacking, the firm has managed to reduce the distance between chiplets, leading to faster data transfer. Vertical stacking also reduces the carbon footprint, which is another added benefit for the widespread adoption of the technology.

The Korean media says that Samsung showcased this technology at the Samsung Foundry Forum 2024 in San Jose, California. This was the first time the company showcased the technology to the public in light of NVIDIA and AMD's next-gen announcements for their respective AI hardware. Since 3D packaging will be utilized with HBM4, we expect Samsung's services to debut with NVIDIA's Rubin architecture and AMD's Instinct MI400 AI accelerators.

Samsung also plans to release an "all-in-one heterogeneous integration" technology by 2027. This technology will allow a single unified AI package without integrators having to deal with separate packaging techniques. After Apple, Intel has adopted a very SOC-centric approach for its thin & light designs such as Lunar Lake CPUs and AMD has also been very much active in the vertical stacking scene with its unique HBM, MCD, and 3D V-Cache stacks across multiple chips for consumers and clients. It will be interesting to see what sort of position the Korean giant finds itself in moving into the future since, in our opinion, Samsung will play a dominant role.