In the first ten years, it turned out to be reversed and it took ten years to study advanced packaging! Hongshu upgraded Taiwan CoWoS equipment kingly road

Hongshu once closed down and was sold, but it has firmly grasped the CoWoS machine with its technical foundation. Now it has not only turned from the bottom, but has also been building with global factories, maintaining long-term growth.

According to "Financial Information", Taiwan's advanced packaging and moisture processing equipment Longtou Hongsu has earned more than one share capital every year since 2012, and nearly three share capitals in 2024, breaking historical records. With the continuous expansion of the advanced packaging of CoWoS lines of the crystal OEM factory, Hongshu has become a red chicken in the semiconductor equipment stock.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Taiwan has gradually gained influence in the global semiconductor market, and semiconductor equipment vendors have also emerged like spring after the rain. Hongsu was founded in the context of time and space that year, and it has been aiming at the first semiconductor process equipment field, which has the highest technical difficulties and has been stolen by foreign investors. However, at that time, the crystal plants were all buying equipment with Taiwan Electric Power. If they had no way to enter the Taiwan Electric Power Supply Chain, it would be difficult to survive.

In the past, I have been in the packaging and training for many years

Hongshu Chairman Zhang Dongtai (first right) accepted an interview with "Financial Information" that in the first ten years of Hongshu's establishment, Hongshu founder Xidun, also borrowed a large loan from him, who was a major shareholder at that time. In the end, he even failed to pay off his debts because he could not afford to pay the debt. "I held up to two-thirds of the company's shares at that time!"

Zhang Dongtai thought that the company was not a good idea to continue operating in this way, so he asked Dong Zuo, who was also the second largest shareholder of the company, to be responsible for allowing the company to operate and move forward. But two years have passed, and Xidun helplessly said that he still cannot see the company's future and has found a buyer to sell. "I felt very distressed at that time, and I felt sorry for the employees, and I had such a high holding, so I decided to become a living doctor." Zhang Dongtai said.

At this time, the global packaging industry began to undergo huge changes. Hongsu executive Nagashi Motori pointed out that in the past, the semiconductor system was only divided into the front and back processes. It was not until the advanced packaging appeared that the middle process was added, and the initial investment was the packaging manufacturers such as Sun and Moonlight and Silicon products in the back. Since the original capital expenditure scale of the packaging and testing factory was much smaller than that of the previous round OEM process manufacturers, the price sensitivity of the machine was also higher, but at that time, there were only a handful of major equipment manufacturers in advanced packaging, such as Japan's MJ Tech, and the sales price was also relatively high, allowing the packaging and testing factory to develop the idea of ​​cultivating local equipment manufacturers and become a chance for Hongsu to enter the advanced packaging field.

Taiwan Electric had foreseen the future demand for advanced packaging as early as 2003, so it cooperated with Singapore's packaging factory STATS ChipPAC to establish a metal bump (Bump) advanced packaging product line within Taiwan Electric's seven factory, which was funded by Xin Ke Jinpeng and Taiwan Electric's output technology. In 2007, the two joint-stock lines were also renamed Taiwan Xingke Jinpeng Semiconductor Company. In 2005, Huang Fuyuan, the deputy director of the Bump Engineering Department and the current general manager and technical director of Hongshu, revealed that the most purchased by this joint asset line was Hongshu's advanced packaging processing equipment.

Since then, Apple and Huawei are popular as smart phones, but the packaging factories are like the sun and moonlight, and there is no longer enough to serve customers' needs such as NVIDIA's 3D display cards and game cards. Therefore, Taiwan's battery gradually enters the advanced packaging markets such as fan-out wafer packaging (FOWLP), integrated fan-out model (InFO), 2.5D, 3D and other advanced packaging markets.

Hongsu also followed Fengshi and Crystal OEM customers, constantly training in the advanced packaging field. In 2012, TAI officially invested in CoWoS advanced packaging technology, at that time to supply Xillinx production military products. In 2016, the A10 processor of the Apple iPhone 7 was first equipped with InFO advanced packaging. These major historical changes in industry have become machines that allow Hongshu to enter the rapid climb stage.

Now, Taiwan accounts for more than 70% of the market

But Hongsu did not just rely on standing in the air of the times to fly quickly. First of all, the product focus, Ishimoto Ritsu emphasized that in the past, Hongsu tried to diversify its operations, but after he took over the executive position in 2014, he cut off all product lines other than advanced packaging. Next is the expanded version of the investment, purchase and agency strategies for advanced packaging fields, such as Tiandeng Technology, which mainly produces electronic formula acids (such as etching liquid, photoresist, electromechanical additives, etc.), Jialin Technology, which mainly focuses on agency businesses such as measuring instrument equipment, and software system design specializing in large-scale data application management.

Hongsu announced at the end of last year that it had increased its current NT$28 per share, with a total investment of NT$70 million, and invested in a professional processing factory of engineering plastics, with a 7.45% shareholding. This investment plan strengthens the localized production capacity of valves and is expected to gradually become an imported alternative to Japan to reduce the crisis of shortage of raw materials in the past, and stabilize quality and delivery time.

In addition, Hongsu's products have also been re-exercised. Huang Fuyuan pointed out that Hongsu spent five years to optimize its products, and due to the increasingly strict specifications and performance requirements of its customers, the products sold now are no longer products sold 10 years ago.

Now, Hongsu has a market share of advanced packaging process equipment in Taiwan with an average market share of up to 75%. Looking ahead, Hongsu also extends advanced packaging industry graphics to panel level packaging and silicon photons. Silicon Photonics has cooperated with a customer in the United States and Taiwan to develop; as for panel-level packaging, it produced products with a size of 510×515 cm or 600×600 cm five or 600 cm in size five or six years ago.

▲ Now Hongsu also extends the business version to panel-level packaging and silicon photons, hoping to become the next wave of growth energy.

In the future, continue to add code to the US company

The heavy blow to the taxes launched by US President Trump this year has also brought considerable shock to the semiconductor industry. Hongshu spokesperson Liang Xie-rying said that the production capacity has exceeded this year, so it is a big task to just hand over the machine to customers successfully. "No surprise, the shipment volume of aircraft will be a new high for this year." However, he also emphasized that the shipment shipped this year will only be half of the machine will be included in the purchase, and some will be included in the purchase in 2026.

As for the US investment and manufacturing issues that are of concern to the outside world, Ishimoto Ritsu emphasized that since customers officially announced in March that they would build advanced packaging factories in the United States, it will take at least two more years to complete the first advanced packaging factory in the United States. Therefore, they will continue to evaluate the needs of American factories. "But at this stage, the Hongshu Association continues to invest in American equipment companies!"

Last year, Hongsu announced that its subsidiary Jialin Technology has continued to cooperate with Sigray, a US semiconductor process testing and solution company, to launch X-ray automatic testing equipment for the rear packaging of semiconductors. It has passed the global crystal foundry and entered into mass production. In fact, both parties have started cooperation in 2018 and will also launch new semiconductor front-end crystal round manufacturing testing equipment in the next generation of semiconductor innovation technology fields such as Backside Power Rail and Nanosheet.

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