Samsung bets on next-gen glass interposers replacing silicon, robots as the next big thing

Samsung Electronics has chosen advanced semiconductor packaging and robots for its future growth engines, and will discuss the two next-gen product paths at its global strategy meeting.

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In a new report from ETnews picked up by insider @Jukanlosreve on X, industry sources said that Samsung has identified strengthening its advanced semiconductor packaging competitiveness and robot business strategies as key agenda items for its 3-day global strategy meeting that's being held between June 17-19.

The global strategy meeting is where key Samsung executives, including headquarters management and overseas corporation heads, review the business status of each division of the company, preparing future growth strategies.

Samsung will reportedly be discussing future advanced packaging technologies and robotics to be discussed by its CTO (Chief Technology Officer), with the purpose of the global strategy meeting to find future growth engines, and have the South Korean company push forward (hard) into them. The DS (Device Solutions) division of Samsung plans to discuss various methodologies to secure advanced packaging competitiveness, with advanced packaging previously referred to as a post-process and had less attention to the pre-process that puts circuits onto wafers.

But, as the speed of circuit miniaturization slows down and the process difficulty increases, overcoming these limits of semiconductor technology with advanced packaging are spreading worldwide. ETnews reports that an industry insider familiar with the matter explained: "Samsung Electronics has deciced it is urgent to secure competitiveness in advanced packaging, which has been relatively behind due to its concentrated investment in the entire process. It will occupy a significant portion of the global strategy meeting".

Samsung Electronics will be discussing its next-gen glass interposer, which will be part of its detailed strategy to enhance its advanced packaging capabilities, with the glass interposer as a glass replacement to the silicon interposer, one of the critical ingredients used in AI semiconductor chip packaging, and is considered as a next-generation semiconductor substrate.

US-based chip giants Intel, AMD, and Broadcom have all been tripping over each other for the introduction of glass interposers, and Samsung Electronics is currently in the works of building a glass interposer supply chain through outsourcing production, with the goal of introducing glass interposers sometime in 2028.

Glass is the next generation of substrates, replacing plastic with glass substrates compared to conventional plastic substrates seeing multiple benefits. Glass substrates have a smoother surface, no longer requiring the interposer to mount chips on the substrate. Glass substrates are also thinner, improving chip processing speed by up to 40%, while reducing power consumption by 30%.

Samsung and SK hynix have spent over 10 years trying to commercialize glass substrate semiconductor technology, but it looks like we're getting closer and closer to glass substrates being a reality.

Robots are another 'next big thing' for Samsung, where at the end of 2024 the company secured the position of the largest shareholder of Rainbow Robotics, a leading domestic robot company. Rainbow Robotics was founded back in 2011 by KAIST researchers who developed "Hubo" which was the first bipedal walking robot in Korea.

According to ETnews industry insiders who predicted that "Samsung is also promoting unmanned and automated manufacturing sites, so plans to utilize industrial robots will also be intensively discussed at a global strategy meeting".