Samsung Electro-Mechanics has picked silicon capacitors as its next growth engine following multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) and is moving in earnest to target the AI Semiconductor infrastructure market. As it accelerates commercialization by recently signing a supply contract worth about 1.5 trillion won with a major global customer, the securities community expects this year's revenue to reach 14 trillion won.
According to the industry on the 14th, Samsung Electro-Mechanics recently signed a silicon capacitor supply contract with a major global corporations. It is a large order won after it began in earnest to expand its silicon capacitor business last year.
A silicon capacitor is an ultra-compact, high-performance component that maximizes capacitance by finely forming electrodes and dielectric layers on a silicon wafer through semiconductor processing. It is made thin and small—about one-tenth the thickness of a human hair—to increase storage capacity per unit area. Mounted in high-performance semiconductors such as graphics processing units (GPU) for AI servers and high-bandwidth memory (HBM), it buffers instantaneous power fluctuations and removes noise.
As data throughput in AI Semiconductors surges and securing power stability emerges as a key task, the strategic value of silicon capacitors, which supply power at the closest point to the semiconductor, is increasing.
Silicon capacitors have long been an oligopolistic market for a few suppliers due to high technological entry barriers and demanding customer certification procedures. There are only five to six corporations worldwide with mass production capabilities. Samsung Electro-Mechanics entered this market after succeeding in mass production based on its ultra-fine processing capabilities accumulated in its MLCC and substrate businesses.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics stresses that silicon capacitors do not replace MLCCs but are complementary, filling spaces that existing MLCCs cannot cover. Kim Wone-kee, who led silicon capacitor development, said, "MLCCs are difficult to thin and are disadvantaged in terms of equivalent series inductance (ESL), but silicon capacitors offer high design freedom even in environments with height constraints," adding, "the general market will be handled by MLCCs, and areas that require ultra-high-performance power will be handled by silicon capacitors, creating synergy."
Samsung Electro-Mechanics plans to diversify its customers into high-performance computing fields such as Autonomous Driving systems and mobile. Kim said, "As the market shifts to physical AI, demand for AI-based high-speed computation and reliability is rising rapidly," and projected, "the pace of expansion in silicon capacitor demand will also be steep." Kim added, "With a total solution that concentrates Samsung Electro-Mechanics' capabilities, we can secure market leadership."