[News] NVIDIA Reportedly Updates Policy, Requires Full Testing of HBM Stacks Before Shipping to Foundries

U.S. chip giant NVIDIA has reportedly updated its policy with memory suppliers, now requiring HBM stacks to be fully tested before being shipped to foundries for packaging, according to South Korean media outlet TheElec.

The report indicates that HBM stacks from memory makers were previously sent directly to TSMC and other foundries for packaging without testing. After receiving the HBMs, foundries would then attach them to substrates with the GPUs, the report adds.

This process meant that a faulty HBM could ruin the entire package, significantly increasing the cost of NVIDIA’s products. According to the report, this may explain why the price of NVIDIA’s H100 board has soared to tens of thousands of dollars.

To solve this issue, NVIDIA now requires memory suppliers to fully test HBM packages before sending them to foundries, creating business opportunities for semiconductor equipment makers like Genesem, which serves SK hynix, according to The Elec.

The report notes that Genesem’s HBM package sorter places individual HBM packages (singulated dies) onto trays for efficient testing in the final phase.

(Photo credit: NVIDIA)