Hanul Semiconductor Selected as AI Factory Company by Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Hanul Semiconductor has been selected as a participating company in the AI Factory project led by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

According to Hanul Semiconductor on the 23rd, the company aims to use this project to increase the inspection speed of its AI-based six-sided inspection equipment for high-performance multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) from the current 7,000 units per minute to over 13,000 units per minute, while also improving defect detection accuracy from 95% to 98%.

Hanul Semiconductor is also carrying out the government-funded project "Development of On-Device Vision Inspection Technology Based on Generative AI" under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, as part of its ongoing efforts to advance AI inspection technology.

The company supplies inspection equipment and mounter facilities for the post-processing sector of MLCCs. As the proportion of high-specification MLCCs increases, the importance of process automation and precision inspection is also rising, leading to expectations of expanding business opportunities in this sector.

Recently, the global surge in investments in AI servers and data centers has rapidly increased demand for high-capacity, high-reliability MLCCs. The number of MLCCs used in some AI server platforms is expected to grow from about 1,440 units per printed circuit board (PCB) to as many as 10,544 units. This has led to forecasts suggesting that MLCCs may emerge as the "second memory semiconductor."

In particular, the supply of high-specification MLCCs for AI servers is limited to a handful of companies, while demand is growing rapidly. There is also competition among global big tech companies to secure long-term supply agreements (LTAs), with some analysts noting that the MLCC market structure is beginning to resemble the boom period of memory semiconductors.

A Hanul Semiconductor official commented, "Unlike previous cycles, this MLCC upcycle is distinguished by the fact that growth is being driven by AI servers and the automotive electronics market," adding, "As the market shifts toward high-capacity and high-layer products, the importance of manufacturing process advancement to simultaneously ensure productivity and quality will become even greater."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.