Samsung Electro-Mechanics Expands Beyond MLCCs into Silicon Capacitor Business
Samsung Electro-Mechanics is in discussions with multiple global Big Tech companies to supply silicon capacitors (Si-Cap) for AI servers. The company is rapidly emerging as a major supplier alongside Japan's Murata and Taiwan's TSMC.
On the 11th, Samsung Electro-Mechanics held a technology seminar at the Taepyeongno Building in Jung-gu, Seoul, where it shared its silicon capacitor technology and commercialization roadmap. Kim Won-gi, head of Samsung Electro-Mechanics' Si-Cap Development Group, said, "Global Big Tech companies whose names you would immediately recognize are reviewing the adoption of silicon capacitors," adding, "Because the market is formed around a small number of players, Samsung Electro-Mechanics is also aggressively pursuing sales activities."
The silicon capacitor market is led by Japan's Murata and Taiwan's TSMC. Barriers to entry are high because the business requires both semiconductor wafer process and passive component capabilities, and the number of suppliers is limited. Samsung Electro-Mechanics President Chang Duck-hyun is cultivating silicon capacitors as a core growth business in the company's push into the AI market.
The company made its full-scale entry into the market last year as it began supplying customers. It supplied products for the AI accelerators of Marvell—a leader in custom networking chips (ASICs)—and for the package of Samsung Electronics' mobile application processor (AP), the Exynos 2600, among others. More recently, it secured a supply contract worth 1.5 trillion won from a global Big Tech company—the largest single contract in Samsung Electro-Mechanics' history. The related revenue is scheduled to be reflected in earnings starting in 2027.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics presented a "total solution" strategy—bundling its silicon capacitor, multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC), and package substrate businesses—as a differentiating factor. Silicon capacitors are mounted inside or adjacent to the package substrate. By supplying both products together, Samsung Electro-Mechanics can design and optimize the package and components simultaneously. Samsung Electro-Mechanics is the only company that operates both passive component and package substrate businesses.
Rather than building large-scale production facilities, the company has chosen a design-centric strategy. It employs a fabless model, outsourcing wafer production to foundries and componentization to specialized semiconductor back-end (OSAT) firms, while Samsung Electro-Mechanics handles product design, testing, and quality verification. The company has a silicon capacitor design and development organization at its Central Research Institute in Suwon.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics' silicon capacitors are manufactured on a 300-millimeter (mm) wafer basis.
A silicon capacitor is a passive component made from a silicon wafer. It temporarily stores electricity and supplies it when needed, keeping the voltage inside the semiconductor package stable. Whereas conventional MLCCs secure capacitance by stacking multiple layers of ceramic, silicon capacitors bore microscopic holes into a wafer and place electrodes inside them. This allows the thickness to be reduced to 100 micrometers (㎛) or less.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics drew its business idea from DRAM technology. DRAM uses a capacitor inside each cell to store data. Samsung Electro-Mechanics developed the silicon capacitor by taking just the capacitor portion of this structure and advancing it into a separate component. The fine-process technology it accumulated while shrinking DRAM circuit linewidths was transferred directly into silicon capacitor development. The more microscopic holes formed in the wafer, the greater the capacitance a silicon capacitor can achieve.
There are differences in silicon capacitor technology between competitors. Samsung Electro-Mechanics utilizes a DRAM-based structure, while TSMC is known to use a logic-process-based trench structure. Samsung Electro-Mechanics mass-produces its products on a 300mm wafer basis, the type primarily used for memory semiconductors.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics projected that the silicon capacitor market will grow at an average annual rate of more than 18%. Its scope of application is expanding from a mobile focus into AI servers, automotive electronics, aerospace, and optical communications. AI servers in particular are emerging as the largest source of demand, as power density increases and package integration intensify simultaneously.
Kim said, "The higher semiconductor performance becomes, the more important power stabilization becomes," adding, "Silicon capacitors will see their range of application continuously expand in the AI server and next-generation high-performance semiconductor markets."