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According to Economic Daily News, on the 21st, international gold prices surged to a new record high of USD 3,400 per ounce. Due to the heavy use of gold as a raw material in the gold bumping process for panel driver IC packaging, Taiwan’s two major driver IC packaging and testing companies, Chipbond and ChipMOS, have reportedly raised their quotes in recent days. This marks the first instance that semiconductor companies have adjusted prices in response to the recent spike in gold prices, the report adds.
Taiwan’s Driver IC Packaging Leaders Respond to Rising Costs
As the report notes, Chipbond is the world’s largest specialized packaging and testing provider for driver ICs, serving major international clients such as Apple and Sony. With its strong position in gold bumping process, Chipbond is expected to factor in rising gold prices in its upcoming quotes.
Meanwhile, as the report indicates, ChipMOS also holds a large volume of driver IC packaging orders. While its contract manufacturing prices remain unchanged, the company is similarly expected to raise its packaging quotations.
The report mentions that packaging and testing companies once faced intense price competition in the driver IC market, and rising gold prices could have threatened to erode margins. However, recent geopolitical shifts have reduced the number of competitors, enabling companies to pass on higher costs and cushion the impact of gold price increases.
The Role of Gold Bumping in Driver IC Packaging
As the report further indicates, metal bumps are primarily used in smaller packaging products. Bumping technology significantly reduces IC size while offering advantages such as high density and superior heat dissipation.
The report also explains that gold bumping is the primary packaging process for driver ICs, largely due to gold’s excellent electrical conductivity, high ductility, strong material stability, and outstanding heat dissipation. These properties allow gold bumping to meet specific customer thickness requirements and maintain consistent spacing during welding, enabling the process to maximize performance in driver ICs.
As the report notes, gold bumping is used in both LCD and OLED driver ICs. Moreover, the technology is also applied to memory and RF ICs.
As explained by ChipMOS, the gold bump is designed and manufactured to provide a good contact between LCD drive IC and the substrate ( for COF devices) or glass plate (for COG devices). Its metal composite bump (MCB) technology uses regular bumping processes, such as: sputtering, photo-resist coating, lithography, plating (copper/nickel/gold), to build various metallic bumps on Al pads of LCD driver IC.
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(Photo credit: ChipMOS)
