According to relevant media, Samsung Electronics is investing heavily in the production of next-generation memory products such as DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 SSDs, benefiting South Korean back-end process equipment suppliers such as Exicon and DI.

After reportedly signing a 45.2 billion won ($34.74 million) equipment supply contract with Samsung in the first quarter of 2022, Exicon received another order from the South Korean tech giant worth 53.1 billion won in early June. , the two transactions amounted to KRW 98.3 billion, while the corresponding figure for the full year of 2021 was KRW 66.1 billion.

According to reports, in Samsung's orders with Exicon, PCIe 5.0 and SAS 24G SSD testers accounted for the largest proportion, reaching 60 billion won, followed by DDR5 burn-in testers and other 24 billion won.

According to reports, in the first quarter of 2022, DI received orders for Samsung's NAND flash memory chip high-speed burn-in tester and new-generation DDR5 burn-in tester worth 13 billion won. The two sides reportedly signed another equipment deal worth 23.7 billion won.

Samsung launches DDR5 7200MHz memory twice as fast as the previous generation

In April, Samsung released its latest DDR5 RAM solution, which now enables users to have 512GB of DDR5 memory on a single memory stick.

Samsung's new 512GB DDR5 memory improves upon the company's layer-and-stack memory packaging technology for its latest DDR4 memory modules. In the image below, you can compare the difference between Samsung's 4-layer DDR4 memory chips and 8-layer DDR5 chips, both connected using Samsung's through-chip technology.

By grinding the silicon layers, Samsung has been able to reduce the thickness of the constituent die by 40% and also reduce the interlayer spacing - so these denser DDR5 integrated chipsets are actually thinner at 1.0mm and 1.2mm respectively. Samsung will be able to make a 512GB memory stick that connects 8 stacked DRAMs together.

Samsung claims its DDR5 technology is twice as fast as the previous generation, claiming speeds of up to over 6400Mbps.

Samsung is already preparing to list it as offering DDR5 memory to data centers, smartphone makers, and laptop makers, among others. Whether the 512GB DDR5 memory stick will be introduced to the consumer market has not yet been determined.

On June 8, DIGITIMES media reported that, according to the news from memory module manufacturers, memory chip manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology are all expanding the production of DDR5 chips in an all-round way, accelerating the industry’s transition from DDR4 to DDR5 DRAM. transition.

Samsung bids for testing machines for mass-produced PCIe 5.0 SSDs

According to media reports in March, Samsung is preparing to mass-produce SSDs (Solid State Drives) with PCIe 5.0 interface and is diversifying the supply chain of SSD testers. The South Korean tech giant recently held an open bidding meeting for SSD tester suppliers to secure new suppliers, sources said. Samsung has now found the candidate it wants

It is understood that this tender is mainly to determine the supplier of SSD burn-in tester and SSD post-tester.

Burn-in testers refer to putting chips into a laboratory to test whether they can perform well under extreme conditions. All solid-state drives for enterprise applications must undergo aging tests. After all, they are used in high-temperature environments such as data centers, and stability is the most important.

Samsung is said to have sourced SSD burn-in testers from South Korea's Exicon, which is the main supplier of the device. To avoid being pinned down by the supply chain, Samsung recently launched a tender to ensure that second-tier suppliers, including Neosem, Advantest and Teledyne, had submitted bids.

The SSD post-test is used to confirm that the upcoming solid-state drive has the same read and write performance as originally set. Samsung is looking for a new major supplier and intends to no longer source from previous suppliers. Exicon and Neosem are working hard to bid on this project.