AUO is rushing into advanced AI packaging! Peng Shuanglang: Don’t be a packaging company, be a key supplier

AI chips are developing towards larger sizes, which will lead to application opportunities for glass substrates in advanced packaging fields. Peng Shuanglang, chairman of AU Optronics (2409), said today (17th) that AU Optronics will use the glass processing technology accumulated over the past 30 years to enter the advanced packaging supply chain of high-end AI chips. He emphasized, "We are not going to be a packaging company, but to become their key supply chain." It is expected that Glass core related technologies will gradually mature in 2 to 3 years.

Peng Shuanglang pointed out that as the size of AI chips becomes larger and larger, the requirements for substrate flatness, heat dissipation and circuit density are also getting higher and higher. Traditional substrates are gradually facing technical limitations. "Glass substrates are the consensus for the next generation of advanced packaging. It just depends on who can make it the fastest."

Regarding external doubts about how AUO, which mainly focused on the panel business in the past, has branched out into advanced semiconductor packaging, Peng Shuanglang said that AUO did not start from scratch. When developing low-orbit satellite antennas in the past, it has accumulated process technologies that are common with fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP), including glass drilling, metallization, and redistribution layers (RDL). Related technologies were used in glass satellite antennas in the past, and can now be further extended to the advanced packaging field.

Peng Shuanglang emphasized that AUO is most familiar with glass materials and processing processes. In the future, it will develop Glass Core glass core substrates based on this, provide through glass vias (TGV), metallization and rewiring layers and other related processes, and become an important supplier in the advanced semiconductor packaging industry chain.

He further explained that AUO is not a packaging factory, nor will it complete the entire IC packaging itself. That is the work of professionals such as TSMC and ASE. AUO focuses on drilling holes in glass, making circuits and metallization processing, and cooperating with the existing semiconductor supply chain.

As for the outside world's concern about whether AUO has the opportunity to cooperate with major manufacturers such as TSMC and Intel, Peng Shuanglang said that it has currently conducted a number of technical discussions with customers. In the future, it will be decided to provide glass substrates, glass interposers (interposers) or other processing processes based on customer needs and business models. The specific partners have not been disclosed.

He also stressed that AUO is not a newcomer to the semiconductor industry. Its subsidiary AUO Crystal Materials has already been involved in semiconductor-related businesses for many years. With the withdrawal of the solar business, all current revenue comes from the semiconductor field, and it maintains good cooperative relations with domestic chip manufacturers, which has become an important foundation for the group to expand the semiconductor supply chain.

As for technological progress, Peng Shuanglang pointed out that further development must be carried out in line with customer needs in the future, and it is expected that the technology will gradually mature within 2 to 3 years.