SK Hynix to invest 800 billion won in equipment for M16 plant in the second half of the year

In the second half of this year, SK Hynix will invest 800 billion won (US$709 million) in equipment for its new wafer fab M16, which was completed in February this year and will use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography to produce memory chips in the future.

According to etnews, SK Hynix plans to introduce equipment for M16 that will have a monthly production capacity of 18,000 wafers based on 12-inch wafer input.

The investment will be carried out in the third and fourth quarters. SK Hynix has discussed the details with equipment suppliers in and outside Korea. The amount is about 800 billion won. An industry insider familiar with the matter said, "SK Hynix plans to invest 18K in M16 in the second half of the year. As far as I know, they are currently negotiating the purchase of equipment."

It is reported that this was originally SK Hynix's investment plan for 2022. However, given the strong demand in the global semiconductor market, the company said in its first quarter earnings conference call in April that "in order to cope with the supply shortage in the entire semiconductor industry, it plans to bring forward some equipment investment from next year to the second half of this year."

The M16 factory is located in Icheon City, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It started construction in November 2018 with an investment of 3.5 trillion won. The construction took 25 months and was officially completed in February this year. SK Hynix also introduced the first EUV lithography machine for it.

South Korea's second-largest memory chipmaker has been preparing to produce "fourth-generation 10-nanometer-class" (1a) DRAM in the second half of the year. However, since 1a DRAM is a new product based on the latest process, it is expected that it will take time for the yield rate and other factors to stabilize.

It is worth mentioning that Samsung Electronics also plans to mass-produce 1a DRAM in the second half of this year. Whether the competition between the top two giants in the global DRAM market has been ignited for the next generation of memory chips has aroused the attention of the industry. In addition, Micron, which ranks third, is relatively late in introducing EUV technology, and its next generation memory chip products are still in the research and development stage.