Semiconductor material innovation is expected to be a key factor in overcoming the memory wall. The memory wall, which is the performance gap between logic and memory, is gradually increasing, and has widened to a 600-fold gap over 20 years, so new material innovation is required for memory innovation.

Merck announced at a press conference held in Samseong-dong, Seoul on the 20th that it will showcase AI-based material solutions and digitalization capabilities through Merck's Materials Intelligence Platform at SEMICON Korea 2025.

Anand Nambiar, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Merck Electronics, attended the event and gave a presentation on the topic of ‘Technology Innovation Based on Materials Intelligence Platform.’

“What many speakers in the SEMICON 2025 keynote commonly mentioned was the need for new materials,” said Anand CCO. “Material innovation is evolving with better performance and lower power consumption as its core.”

Merck's unique market position is based on its comprehensive involvement in the semiconductor end-to-end process, and semiconductor manufacturers expect predictable and proven solutions. In particular, the equipment and concepts of the pre-process are being spread to the post-process, and in the era of advanced packaging such as chiplets, full-process solutions and capabilities are emerging.

Accordingly, Merck emphasized that it supports all overall process steps and supports innovation in advanced packaging and advancements in semiconductor scaling. It provides capabilities to overcome three major semiconductor challenges: △2D scaling miniaturization, △3D architecture, and △heterogeneous integrated packaging.

Anand CCO said, “The semiconductor front-end process reaches about 2,000 steps in the 2nm process, and yield issues are emerging as a key issue, especially in heterojunction chiplets where semiconductors with various functions are integrated.” He added, “Customers expect comprehensive solutions, and Merck supports each step by collaborating with all companies, reflecting the trend of closer integration between front-end and back-end processes.”

In particular, Merck in the AI era emphasized 'material intelligence' and said that by connecting the AI world and the physical world, it helps understand the situation of the product produced in the material manufacturing process. AI simulation can find hundreds or thousands of ideas, and virtual experiments can significantly shorten the time for the improvement process, he explained.

“The industry’s biggest challenge is the memory wall, which is causing a huge gap in CPU and memory development,” said Anand CCO. He emphasized that the memory wall, which represents the development gap between logic and memory, has widened to nearly 600 times. Solving these challenges is expected from new materials in the AI era.

“Merck considers Korea as one of the global key hubs for our essential materials R&D and production,” said Woo-Kyu Kim, CEO of Merck Korea. “We have been doing our best as an innovation partner to support the future growth of our Korean customers for the past 36 years, including through our continued investment in the Korean SOD Application Center that opened in Anseong in the second half of last year and new product lines at our Eumseong plant.”

Kim also added, “Merck will continue to faithfully fulfill its commitment to investing in local capabilities and capacity enhancements to provide faster and more responsive support and service.”