Samsung is seeking external partners to increase the production of DDR5 modules.
- Samsung has no available spaces for DDR5 modules
- Production will be increased through contractors in India, Vietnam, and the Philippines
- Dreamtech plans to release more than 50 million DDR5 modules per year
The DRAM market is in a difficult position: manufacturers are increasingly focusing on expensive and in-demand HBM modules, while resources for producing DDR5 and DDR4 are gradually decreasing. This reorientation has led to a shortage of available space in factories capable of servicing traditional types of memory.
In response to this situation, Samsung Electronics has officially reached out to its partners requesting additional capacity for the production of finished DDR5 modules. A similar request was made to manufacturers of solid-state drives (SSD), which Samsung also offers under its brand. Thus, the growth in volumes of DDR5 and SSD will be supported not by internal, but by external resources.
Samsung's own factories in Cheonan and Onyang are currently being upgraded with the aim of increasing testing and packaging of HBM and other advanced chips. These investments are not aimed at expanding the production of DDR5 modules, so the company is forced to rely on third-party contractors.
Partner projects in India
One of the key contractors is the Indian company Dreamtech. In November of last year, it began local production of DDR5 modules in India, and in June of this year, it decided to retool a factory that previously produced printed circuit boards for smartphones for memory production. Major work will be completed this month, after which an increase in volumes to more than 50 million units per year is planned.
Expansion in Vietnam and the Philippines
The Vietnamese firm Hanyang Digitech invested 22.7 million USD in new equipment and automation of memory module production processes in the first half of the year. At the same time, SFA Semicon moved equipment previously used by Samsung in Onyang to its factory in the Philippines. Production in the Philippines will start in November of this year, and further expansion is planned for the second quarter of next year. The Korean division of SFA Semicon will be responsible for packaging FBGA type chips, which are then assembled into finished modules.
Samsung itself began negotiations with partners in June last year to expand production lines, and this year it accelerated the process by requesting the construction of new facilities to be expedited. The new plant in Onyang will be put into operation only in a few years, and a testing and packaging center is planned in northern Vietnam, focused not on the latest types of products, but on more traditional DDR4, LPDDR4, NAND, and UFS.
In total, despite plans to build new facilities, Samsung's own capabilities for producing finished memory modules will remain limited in the coming years. The company will rely on external partners in India, Vietnam, and the Philippines to meet the growing global demand for DDR5 modules.
Source: 3DNews
