News
Samsung Starts First FCBGA Manufacturing Facility In S. Korea
So FCBGA, what is it, what does it have to do with Samsung and why we are telling you this?
First of all, we know that amid all the monotonous news, sometimes readers want to explore something different like a distinguished person does from time to time, that’s why we bring you the information about semiconductors and other stuff.
So, today another subsidiary of Samsung, SEM started industrial-level production of the Flip Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA) for servers in their home turf Korea; this is the first time for Samsung to produce FCBGA in Korea. According to sources, Samsung wants to establish itself in this particular tech among the big Global Players.
The plant in Busan is running the biz and output results; both material & tech will be utilized in CPUs and GPUs.
The FCBGA & Substrate
In brief, FCBGA is a highly-integrated bundle board which combines a high-integration semiconductor chip with a central board. FCBGA tech is vital when performance is more substantial than expenditure, such as servers and workstations.
The substrate is the base layer of a structure in a chip, multichip module (MCM), printed circuit board, or disk platter, and Silicon is the most extensively used substrate for chips.
Below are some key developments for Samsung in this regard
- As of now, the Korean Conglomerate has poured 300 billion won ($227.4 million) into the native country for manufacturing the future substrate technology with already spent 2 trillion won in the previous two years for the expansion of the production.
- Last year, Samsung Electro-Mechanics produced 703,000 square meters of package substrates, equivalent to 100 soccer fields.
- Estimates suggest the FCBGA market will extend by 14 % a year for the next five years and reach $17 billion by 2026.
- Climbing injunctions for high-performance chips to control 5G and AI applications will result in even better demands.
- Japan’s Ibiden and Shinko Electric Industries with Taiwan’s Unimicron are cutting lines to pursue the biz; even the home-rival Korea’s LG Innotek will start mass production next year.
The Takeaway
SEM’s expansion and investment in Busan are being seen as a focal point for manufacturing FCBGA for servers, i.e. with four times larger in size and doubled layers compared to package substrates for PCs, taking the tech to the next level for achieving unparalleled success by Samsung.
At this moment, only a handful like Japan’s Ibiden and Shinko Electric Industries are qualified in the tech, but that’d perhaps see the turnaround withSEMs investment.
Samsung SDI, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Display, and other Samsung Group subsidiaries already manufacture & produce several components for OEMs, e.g., camera modules and SCs, to display solutions and batteries; Samsung does it all.
And with already started 3-nm mass production early this July, Samsung doesn’t seem to be backing down from this conquest of acquiring the memory chip and foundry market.
The Korean brand – Samsung has recently announced its two mid-range Galaxy smartphones – Galaxy A55 5G and Galaxy A35 5G. A new benchmark listing has a spot for Samsung’s affordable smartphone, Galaxy35 5G.
Samsung is now gearing up for its next affordable Galaxy smartphone, the M35 5G, as the reports are unvunveilhey have found a new benchmark listing for Samsung the Galaxy M35 5G.
The smartphone has been spotted with the model number as an identification code – SM-M356B on the Geekbench 6.2.2 database. Not only this, but it also confirmed the presence of 6GB of RAM and Android 14 OS. The chipset also came to know which is the latest Exynos 1380.
The codename for the motherboard is also mentioned, which is ‘s5e8835.’ The reports say that it has scored 656 and 1967 points in performance scores on the benchmarking platform. Exynos 1380 is the latest chipset of the Korean brand, which is a 5 nm processor. It consists of 4 Cortex A78 cores, which clock at 2.4GHz, and 4 Cortex A55 cores, which clock at 2.0GHz. It is coupled with a Mali g68 MP5 GPU. It also has an AI Engine.
This also offers connectivity options, which include the latest Bluetooth version 5.3 and Wi-Fi 802.11 ax with three bands. It supports a camera resolution of at least 200MP for capturing images, and for video recording, there is support for up to 30fps 4K recording. The storage supported is UFS v3.1, and RAM will be of the LPDDR4x/5 type.
Samsung has recently debuted its two smartphones, Galaxy A55, and Galaxy A35; the Galaxy A35 5G smartphone is powered by Exynos 1380 chipset. From this perspective, Galaxy M35 5G could be a variant of Galaxy A35.
At the moment, no specs and features of the device have been revealed or leaked. Still, since Galaxy M series smartphones usually have a bit higher battery power of at least 6000mAh, the forthcoming Galaxy M35 5G smartphone also arrives with the same battery power.
Firmware
Verizon rolls out the March 2024 security patch update for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 devices
Verizon has rolled out the March 2024 security patch update for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 devices. Earlier, these devices had received the same update outside the US, but now they are gradually expanding to the US.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 are spotted getting new updates with the firmware version numbers F926USQS5HXBD and F711USQS6HXBD, respectively. It is worth noticing the update is currently available for the devices locked to Verizon, but it will soon be available on more carriers.
For your information, the latest update for Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 doesn’t bring any significant changes, but as it is the latest security patch, it will provide some internal fixes to maintain the security of the devices.
If you are getting some other issues from the last update, you should also update the device to the latest update, as it may also address some issues. Along with the update, other improvements may also be made to enhance the overall performance of the devices.
Suppose you use the Galaxy Z Fold 3 or Flip 3 device in the US. In that case, you can update the device to the latest version by simply going to the system settings and then to the software update. If you haven’t received the update, you should wait for some time, as it may arrive in the next few days.
Firmware
Samsung rolls out the March 2024 security patch update for the Galaxy S23 FE devices in the US
Samsung has rolled out the March 2024 security patch to almost all devices but still needs to complete the update distribution to all eligible devices. So, gradually expanding the update to remaining devices, the company has started rolling out the update for the Galaxy S23 FE in the US.
Notably, the Galaxy S23 FE devices are getting a new update in the carrier-unlocked version with the firmware version number S711U1UES2BXBF. The update has already been rolled out to almost all carriers, including AT&T, Bluegrass Cellular, C-Spire, Cellular South, Comcast, Cricket, DISH, MetroPCS, T-Mobile, Tracfone, US Cellular, Verizon, and Xfinity Mobile.
According to the official changelog, the March 2024 security patch is one of the standard maintenance updates that provides some internal improvements for the device, and there will be no visible changes available. In other words, users may experience some improvement in the functioning of devices, but it doesn’t particularly bring any specific changes for the device.
Going to the details, the March 2024 security patch includes more than 40 fixes, 37 of which are provided by Google and address the issues found in the Android OS, while 9 more features are introduced by Samsung that enhance the performance of Galaxy devices exclusively.
Suppose you are using the Galaxy S23 FE in the US. In that case, you can update the devices to the latest version by following the simple steps: first, go to the system settings, tap on the software update, and tap on the download and install button; if it shows a new update available, tap on the download button.