Key Findings
Henkel has established a strategic semiconductor materials hub in Songdo, Incheon, to meet the rising demand for advanced packaging driven by AI. The 10,144-square-meter facility, completed in 2022 with an investment of approximately 35 million euro ($39.2 million), is the company’s only Korean plant dedicated to semiconductor adhesives and represents its largest single investment in the country, excluding acquisitions.
Technical Details
The Songdo plant has an annual production capacity of up to 250 metric tons of semiconductor adhesives. The manufacturing process consists of seven stages: raw material inspection and weighing, mixing, milling additives, finished product testing, and filling into piston-operated syringes. To ensure consistency, the facility utilizes Class 10,000 cleanrooms and statistical process controls to monitor production data.
Henkel’s broader portfolio includes over 500 adhesive solutions, specifically:
- Die-attach materials for bonding chips to surfaces.
- Underfills for reinforcing connections beneath chips.
- Encapsulants for component protection.
- The Loctite Ablestik CDF900 series of thermally conductive die-attach films for AI and high-performance computing.
Technical requirements are shifting toward adhesives that flow more readily and form thinner bonding layers to accommodate shrinking components and tighter spaces within packages.
Background & Context
The location in Songdo provides proximity to major memory manufacturers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Additionally, the site’s proximity to Incheon International Airport allows for efficient air transport to overseas customers via competitive cargo rates. Henkel’s Adhesive Technologies division is a primary business driver, generating 10.7 billion euros in sales last year.
Significance & Outlook
To address increasingly difficult thermal management and mechanical stress in complex AI packaging, Henkel plans to open a new technical center in Seoul’s Gasan Digital Complex in March 2027. This center will expand existing R&D operations and work in tandem with the Songdo production site to develop materials that meet the demanding specifications of next-generation AI and high-performance computing processors.
Source: https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10915087
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