Samsung plans to set up Japan’s first chip test line for advanced chip packaging

South Korea’s Samsung plans to set up a chip testing line in Japan, five people said, to bolster its advanced packaging business and forge closer ties with Japanese manufacturers of semi-automatic equipment and materials. drivers.

It would be the first such test line for Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip maker, in Japan. It would also come as the United States increasingly urges its allies to work together to counter China’s rise in chips and advanced technologies.

Japan said on Friday it would restrict exports of 23 types of chipmaking tools, aligning its trade controls on technology with a U.S. push to limit China’s ability to make advanced chips.

Samsung plans to establish the facility in Kanagawa prefecture outside Tokyo, where it already has a research and development (R&D) center, according to four of the people, all of whom declined to be identified because the information is not public.

Although details have yet to be finalized, including the timing, the investment is likely to be $75 million (around Rs 615 crore), one of the people said.

Samsung is looking to deepen its cooperation with Japanese companies, two of the interviewees said. Japan is attractive due to relatively low labor costs and the presence of leading equipment and chip material makers, giving Samsung access to a local “ecosystem”, the company said. ‘One. Two.

However, one of the people said deliberations were still in the early stages, adding that the South Korean company was considering various options and nothing had been decided.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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