Industry sources say Samsung plans to raise outsourced glass-carrier cleaning
throughput for its HBM process to 50,000 pieces/month next year from
20,000/month this year and 10,000/month last year. Glass carriers are temporary,
reusable supports mounted beneath DRAM wafers to prevent warping or cracking
during etch and drilling; actual carrier use depends on feed methods and process
yield. A 2.5x rise versus this year suggests Samsung's HBM4-series output could
at least double next year. Samsung is preparing to expand capacity for HBM4 and
HBM4E, both using 12+-layer high-stack architectures.
