BOE reportedly mulls producing glass substrates for China's CPUs — new focus on semiconductors

Intel
(Image credit: Intel)

BOE, a leading Chinese maker of LCD and OLED displays, is looking to make glass core substrates for next-generation domestic processors, Nikkei reports. The company plans to launch a pilot production line for glass core substrates in the second half of 2025, which will put it on the map in the semiconductor industry -- and also in line with giants such as Intel, Samsung, and TSMC.

"BOE is shifting its resources from display to focus more on semiconductor-related technologies," a key display and chip equipment supplier executive told Nikkei.

New challenges = New opportunities, major ones

Glass substrates offer advantages over organic ones, including exceptional flatness for enhanced lithography precision and better dimensional interconnect stability. These qualities are critical for next-generation system-in-packages (SiPs) with dozens of chiplets. Additionally, according to Intel, glass substrates excel in thermal and mechanical stability, enabling them to handle higher temperatures, which is particularly beneficial for data center applications. Finally, they promise to support an up to 10X higher interconnect density, essential for improving power delivery and signal routing in advanced SiPs.

There are challenges for BOE and other display panel makers associated with going from LCD and OLED production as they will have to deal with materials they are exploring but are not yet mass-producing. From an AMD patent, we know that the company explores glass substrates made of materials like borosilicate, quartz, and fused silica, which provide significant benefits compared to conventional organic materials as they feature remarkable flatness, dimensional stability, and superior thermal and mechanical stability. While borosilicate, quartz, and fused silica could provide some benefits to displays, and therefore BOE and its rivals are likely R&D'ing them, it is not clear how close they are for mass production.

U.S. government's curbs against China's semiconductor sector somewhat slow down its development, but they also open doors for companies to enter this industry, being confident that they will not face any significant rivalry. Now that leading chip designers and makers cannot supply to major entities in China, domestic companies get a carte blanche to develop advanced computing platforms without significant risks of losing contracts to Western companies. To that end, spending on R&D of new materials and manufacturing technologies and re-tooling fabs could be well justified for companies like BOE.

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Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.