Merck begins making molybdenum in Korea for next-generation chips

Merck began making molybdenum in Korea on Thursday, opening a new line at its Eumseong plant in North Chungcheong for the metal that chipmakers are testing as a replacement for tungsten in 3-D NAND flash.

Molybdenum forms the metal wiring inside a chip. It is gaining attention as a replacement for tungsten and copper, which remain the dominant materials but are running into limits as circuits shrink.

Merck aims to expand the use of molybdenum to dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and logic chips in the future.

“Tungsten and copper have been around for decades, but with AI, everything is shrinking to a very small dimension,” said Bing Han, head of the thin film business at Merck Electronics, the German company’s semiconductor and display materials business sector, at a press briefing in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Wednesday.

NAND flash retains data when the power is off, DRAM serves as fast temporary memory while a device is running and logic chips are the processors that do the computing.

Use of molybdenum is still at an early stage, said Kim Woo-kyu, managing director of Merck Korea, who stressed the conservative nature of the semiconductor industry.

“Because this is a new material, it will need considerable verification at first,” Kim said. “Once it is verified and trust is built, it is expected that places where conductivity is a problem, such as small structures, will all switch quickly.”

The new line is part of a 600 million euro ($674 million) investment in Korea that Merck first announced in 2021. The investment also covers expanded extreme ultraviolet processes and capacity as well as a spin-on dielectric application lab in Anseong, where clients can run trials locally rather than sending samples overseas and waiting for results.

Korea remains one of Merck’s “top three” markets, home to two leading chipmakers, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

“Even if only 50 percent of the aspirations of the Korean chipmakers come through over the next five years, it will be massive growth,” said Benjamin Hein, CEO of Merck’s electronics business. “So for us, it is a super attractive market. It has been like that for decades.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]