Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
OVERVIEW
Amkor is one of the world’s leading providers of outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services. Amkor was a pioneer in the outsourcing of semiconductor packaging and test services, and over the years we have built a leading position by:
• Designing and developing innovative packaging and test technologies focused on advanced packaging solutions in high growth markets, including artificial intelligence;
• Building expertise in high-volume manufacturing processes and developing a reputation for high quality and solid execution;
• Cultivating long-standing relationships with our customers, which include many of the world’s leading semiconductor companies;
• Collaborating with customers, foundries, original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and equipment and material suppliers;
• Focusing on strategic end markets that offer solid growth potential;
• Providing a geographically diverse operating base with manufacturing facilities in multiple countries across Asia and in Europe; and
• Developing a competitive cost structure through disciplined capital investment.
Our packaging and test services are designed to meet application and chip-specific requirements, including: the required type of interconnect technology; size; thickness; and electrical, mechanical and thermal performance. We provide turnkey packaging and test services including semiconductor wafer bump, wafer probe, wafer back-grind, package design, packaging, system-level and final test and drop shipment services. Our customers use us for one or more of these services.
We provide our services to integrated device manufacturers (“IDMs”), “fabless” semiconductor companies, OEMs and contract foundries. IDMs generally design, manufacture, package and test semiconductors in their own facilities. However, the availability of technologically advanced outsourced manufacturing services has encouraged IDMs to outsource a portion of their manufacturing. By offering a broad package portfolio, Amkor allows IDMs to outsource packaging and test services and focus their investments on core competencies such as silicon fabrication. Fabless semiconductor companies do not have factories. They focus exclusively on semiconductor design and outsource virtually every step of the manufacturing process, utilizing contract foundries to manufacture their semiconductors in wafer form and companies such as Amkor for their packaging and test needs. Some companies will engage a contract foundry to manage the complete semiconductor manufacturing process, and, in turn, the contract foundry will outsource some of its packaging and test needs.
INDUSTRY BACKGROUND
Semiconductor devices are essential building blocks used in most electronic products. As electronic and semiconductor devices have evolved, several important trends have emerged that have fueled the growth of the overall semiconductor industry, as well as the market for outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services. These trends include:
• Adoption of artificial intelligence applications within data centers and edge devices such as smartphones, autonomous vehicles and consumer and industrial devices.
• Growing demand for mobile and connected devices, including the worldwide adoption of smartphones, tablets and other Internet-of-Things (“IoT”) devices that can access the internet and provide multimedia capabilities.
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• An increase in the semiconductor content within electronic products to provide greater functionality and higher levels of performance.
• The expansion of 5G infrastructure and 5G enabled devices.
• The proliferation of semiconductor devices into well-established end products such as automotive systems for automation and driver assist, electrification and infotainment systems.
• An increase in mobility and connectivity capabilities, driving demand for new broadband wired and wireless networking equipment.
• Digitalization, driving expansion of data generation and storage.
• The adoption of heterogeneous integration (diverse dies positioned close to each other within the same package) to reduce cost, improve yields and deliver required performance in data center computing, artificial intelligence and similar end uses.
• The growth of advanced system-in-package (“SiP”) modules (combining multiple semiconductor and other electronic components in a single package) to meet the demand for miniaturization and higher functionality at competitive cost.
• The increase in digital format in our environment, from sensors for automobiles (e.g., pressure, radar, LiDAR and image recognition), mobile devices (e.g., 3D motion, temperature, acceleration and imaging), and IoT (e.g., in-home sensing from temperature to weather and wearables).
As a supplier in the semiconductor industry, our business is cyclical and impacted by broad economic factors, such as worldwide gross domestic product and consumer spending. With the exception of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic caused worldwide gross domestic product levels to decline during a period of strong growth in the semiconductor industry, there has generally been a strong correlation between worldwide gross domestic product levels, consumer spending and semiconductor industry cycles. We believe that the general semiconductor market is currently going through a cyclical correction. The semiconductor industry has experienced significant and sometimes prolonged cyclical upturns and downturns in the past. We cannot predict the timing, strength or duration of any correction, economic slowdown, recession or subsequent economic recovery.
Outsourcing Trends in Semiconductor Manufacturing
Semiconductor companies outsource their packaging and test needs to service providers such as Amkor for the following reasons:
Packaging and test service providers have developed expertise in advanced technologies.
The increasing demands for miniaturization, greater functionality, lower power consumption and improved thermal and electrical performance are driving the continuous development of semiconductor packaging and test technologies that are more sophisticated, complex, capital intensive and customized. This trend has led many semiconductor companies and OEMs to view packaging and test as enabling technologies requiring the technological innovation expertise found in the leading outsourced assembly and test companies. At the same time, these companies are often looking to reduce their internal manufacturing and research and development costs for packaging and test solutions. As a result, many of these companies are increasingly relying on packaging and test service providers as key sources for new package designs and advanced interconnect technologies.
Packaging and test service providers can facilitate a more efficient supply chain and help shorten time-to-market for new products.
We believe that semiconductor companies, together with their customers, are seeking to shorten the time-to-market for new products and that an efficient supply chain is a critical factor in facilitating timely and successful product introductions. Packaging and test service providers have the resources and expertise to timely develop and implement new packaging technology in high volume. For this reason, semiconductor companies and OEMs are leveraging the capabilities of outsourced packaging and test service providers to bring new high quality products to market more quickly.
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High quality packaging and test service providers enable semiconductor manufacturers to focus their resources on semiconductor design and wafer fabrication.
As semiconductor process technology migrates to larger wafers and smaller feature sizes, the cost of building a state-of-the-art wafer fabrication factory has risen significantly. The high cost of investing in next generation silicon technology and equipment is causing many semiconductor companies to adopt or maintain a “fabless” or “fab-lite” strategy to reduce or eliminate their investment in wafer fabrication and associated packaging and test operations. As a result, these companies are increasing their reliance on outsourced providers of semiconductor manufacturing services, including high quality packaging and test solutions.
Packaging and test service providers offer a cost-effective solution in a cyclical, capital intensive industry.
The semiconductor industry is cyclical by nature and impacted by broad economic factors, such as changes in worldwide gross domestic product and consumer spending. Semiconductor packaging and test are complex processes requiring substantial investment in specialized equipment, factories and human capital. As a result of this cyclicality and the large investments required, manufacturing facilities must operate at consistently high levels of utilization to be cost-effective. Shorter product life cycles, coupled with the need to update or replace packaging and test equipment to accommodate new package types, make it more difficult for IDMs to maintain cost-effective utilization of their packaging and test assets throughout semiconductor industry cycles. Packaging and test service providers, on the other hand, can typically use their assets to support a broad range of customers and multiple end markets, potentially generating more efficient use of their production assets and a more cost-effective solution.
STRATEGY AND COMPETITIVE STRENGTHS
Strategy
Amkor is a leader in advanced packaging technology in the outsourced assembly and test market. Growth in the semiconductor industry is being driven primarily by advanced packaging within the industry secular growth markets of 5G, automotive, high-performance computing (“HPC”) and IoT. We believe Amkor is well positioned in each of these end markets.
• Within our communications end market, we have a strong position across multiple device functionalities within premium and high tier smartphones. We are collaborating with industry leaders as smartphones transition to 5G and drive semiconductor growth through the adoption of new wireless standards, integration of a broad range of applications, enhanced features, and higher performance requirements to support increased data processing. The trend to greater functionality drives miniaturization and cost reduction enabled by advanced packaging.
• Increasing semiconductor content in automobiles is driving increased demand for advanced packaging to enable the proliferation of safety features such as advanced driver assistance systems (“ADAS”) and radar and digital cockpit features such as infotainment displays and telematics. Increasing battery voltage, higher voltage power converters, onboard chargers, automotive inverter components and microcontrollers also require innovative power packaging solutions.
• Increased data traffic requiring higher networking speed and storage, as well as computing power increases in HPC, artificial intelligence, data centers, cloud computing, PCs and laptops, are driving demand for more semiconductors and advanced packaging in the computing end market.
• The IoT wearables within our consumer end market are evolving in multiple applications, such as hearables, watches, health trackers and augmented reality and virtual reality devices. Integration of multiple functions into small form factors, such as processors, sensors and connectivity devices, depends on innovation in advanced packaging.
Our primary financial objective is profitable sales growth. We believe that we will continue to achieve that goal and create long-term shareholder value by building on our strength in advanced packaging and executing on the following strategies.
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Leverage Our Leadership in Services for Advanced Technologies
We are an industry leader in developing and commercializing advanced packaging and test technologies, which we believe provide substantial value to our customers.
With approximately 950 employees, as of December 31, 2023, engaged in research and development for new semiconductor packaging and test technologies, we are a technology leader in areas such as 2.5D, advanced flip chip, fine pitch bumping, wafer-level processing, advanced SiPs and power modules.
We work closely with our customers to develop cost-effective leading-edge packages for the next generation of devices. These include integrated technologies such as advanced SiP, wafer-level fan-out (“WLFO”), Silicon Wafer Integrated Fan-out Technology (“SWIFT”), High Density Fan-Out (“HDFO”) and redistribution layer (“RDL”) solutions which enable very thin, very small products that combine application processors, memory, baseband and other peripheral integrated circuits (“ICs”). Our advanced packages may utilize Through Silicon Via (“TSV”) interconnects and silicon interposers, which enable the integration of high-performance chips such as high bandwidth memory and graphics processors into a single package, such as 2.5D. In addition, we co-develop with customers high power modules incorporating gallium nitride (“GaN”) and silicon carbide (“SiC”) based devices. Our approach is to work with lead customers to develop processes that will enable volume manufacturing with high yields and reliability.
We believe that demand for advanced packaging services will continue to grow as our customers and leading electronics OEMs strive for smaller device geometries, higher levels of integration and performance and lower power consumption. We intend to continue to leverage our investment in advanced technology to meet the demand for these services in high growth markets.
Optimize Utilization of Existing Assets
Another key to our success is to optimize the utilization of our existing assets. The transition by leading edge customers to newer packaging and test equipment platforms typically frees up capacity in existing, previously installed equipment. As part of our strategy, we are focused on developing a second wave of customers to utilize these assets more effectively over a longer period of time. We are building and utilizing manufacturing lines which support multiple customers and increase factory utilization through more sophisticated planning processes and more intensive efficiency improvement activities.
Selectively Grow Our Scale and Scope through Strategic Investments
From time to time, we identify attractive opportunities to strengthen our leadership position and market share through expansion of our operations, joint ventures, acquisitions and other strategic investments. For example, in 2023, we completed construction of the Vietnam Facility, where we will manufacture advanced SiP modules and other packaging solutions. We believe that the Vietnam facility will provide customers with a cost-competitive high-volume manufacturing location that offers supply chain diversification. In addition, our broad geographic footprint, including our manufacturing presence in Portugal and our headquarters in the United States, are key differentiators for us and position us to participate in initiatives to regionalize supply chains. We are making preparations to participate in developing the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and are planning to build an advanced packaging and test facility in Arizona. We believe that selective growth through these strategic actions can further strengthen customer relationships, help to maintain and enhance our technological leadership, diversify our revenue streams and improve our profits.
Competitive Strengths
The outsourced semiconductor packaging and test market is very competitive. We also compete with the internal semiconductor packaging and test capabilities of many of our customers and foundries. We believe we are well-positioned in the outsourced packaging and test services market. The following competitive strengths support our strategy to build upon our industry position and remain a preferred provider of semiconductor packaging and test services.
Advanced Packaging Technology Leadership
We are a leader in developing and deploying advanced semiconductor packaging and test solutions. We have designed and developed several state-of-the-art package formats and technologies such as Double-Sided, Molded Ball Grid Array
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(“DSMBGA”) SiP and 2.5D. 2.5D technology utilizes high density silicon interposers to enable the integration of high-performance chips, such as high bandwidth memory and graphics processors, into a single package. In addition, we believe that as semiconductor technology continues to achieve smaller device geometries with higher levels of integration, speed and performance, packages will increasingly require wafer-level Chip Scale Packaging (“CSP”), WLFO, SWIFT and flip chip interconnect solutions, advanced SiP products and medium and higher power density packages and modules.
We are committed to advancing our key processes and packages, as well as developing innovative test solutions, required for our customers to deliver advanced integrated and modular solutions to their respective markets. We are also committed to environmental responsibility by creating more sustainable IC packaging. This involves minimizing the use of harmful materials like lead and optimizing energy and water usage.
Broad Offering of Semiconductor Package Design, Packaging and Test Services
Creating successful interconnect solutions for advanced semiconductor devices often poses unique thermal, electrical and mechanical design challenges, and we employ a large number of engineers to solve these challenges. This wide variety of packaging offerings is necessary to meet the diverse needs of our customers for the optimal combination of performance, size and cost. Utilizing Amkor for its innovative packaging, test and design services enables our customers to focus their resources on semiconductor design and wafer fabrication.
We also offer an extensive line of advanced probe and final test services for analog, digital, logic, mixed signal, memory, sensors and radio frequency-semiconductor devices. We believe that the breadth of our design, packaging and test services is important to customers seeking to limit the number of their suppliers.
Geographically Diversified Manufacturing Base
We have a broad and geographically diverse manufacturing footprint strategically located in eight of the world’s important electronics manufacturing regions. We believe that our scale and scope allow us to provide a flexible supply chain and cost-effective solutions to our customers by:
• Being located in key regions where customers are actively seeking to develop localized supply chains;
• Qualifying production of customer devices at multiple manufacturing sites with geographical diversity to mitigate the risks of supply disruptions;
• Providing capabilities and solutions for customer-specific requirements;
• Offering capacity to absorb large orders and accommodate quick turn-around times; and
• Obtaining favorable pricing and supply agreements on materials and equipment by using our purchasing power and leading industry position.
Long-Standing Relationships and Collaboration with Prominent Semiconductor Companies
Our customers include most of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, and over the last five decades we have developed long-standing relationships with many of these companies. We believe that our production excellence, including high quality, reliability and predictability, has been a key factor in our success in attracting and retaining customers. We work with our customers and our suppliers to develop proprietary process technologies to enhance our existing capabilities, reduce time-to-market, improve quality and lower costs.
We believe that our focus on research and product development will enable us to enter new markets early, capture market share and promote the adoption of our new package formats as industry standards. We collaborate with customers and leading OEMs to develop comprehensive packaging solutions that make it easier for next-generation semiconductors to be designed into next-generation end products. By collaborating with leading semiconductor companies, foundries and OEM electronics companies, we are able to focus resources on developing new packages that will meet the requirements of new products. The traditional delineation between front-end semiconductor manufacturing and packaging is starting to converge. Foundries, and in some cases IDMs, are integrating some packaging activities closer to front-end wafer processes. We work closely with foundry partners to complement these offerings by offering similar wafer-based technologies as well as downstream processing.
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PACKAGING AND TEST SERVICES
In general, the semiconductor manufacturing process consists of IC design, wafer fabrication, wafer probe, packaging and final test. The packaging and test services we provide occur subsequent to wafer fabrication, and the wafers that we receive from our customers are generally consigned to us.
Advanced Products and Mainstream Products
We offer a broad range of advanced and mainstream packaging and test services to our customers. We refer to our flip chip, wafer-level processing and related test services as “Advanced Products” and to our wirebond packaging, power device packaging and related test services as “Mainstream Products.” The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, net sales for Advanced Products and Mainstream Products and the percentage of total net sales for each service offering.
For the Year Ended December 31,
2023 2022 2021
(In millions, except percentage of net sales)
Advanced Products $ 5,033 77.4 % $ 5,368 75.7 % $ 4,409 71.8 %
Mainstream Products 1,470 22.6 % 1,724 24.3 % 1,729 28.2 %
Total net sales $ 6,503 100.0 % $ 7,092 100.0 % $ 6,138 100.0 %
Advanced Products
Our Advanced Products include flip chip chip scale packages (“FC CSP”), wafer-level packages and flip chip ball grid array (“FCBGA”) packages. These package families use flip chip interconnect technology so that the die can be connected to a substrate package carrier or, in the case of wafer-level chip scale packages, directly to a printed circuit board.
FC CSP Products : FC CSP packages are small form factor packages where the substrate size is not much larger than the die itself. FC CSP can be a single die or multi die format. The size advantage provided by CSP technologies has made FC CSP an attractive choice for a wide variety of applications that require very small form factors, such as smartphones, tablets and other mobile consumer electronic devices.
Flip chip stacked chip scale packages (“FC SCSP”) stack a second die on top of the original flip-chip die. The top die is typically a memory device, and wirebond interconnects are used to attach the top die to the substrate. FC SCSP is frequently used to stack memory on top of digital baseband and applications processors for use in mobile devices.
We continue to drive thinner package solutions for our Package on Package (“PoP”) technology through the development of ultra-thin substrates and enhancing our pre-stacking and thin die handling capabilities.
We developed fine pitch copper pillar flip chip interconnect technology, which creates interconnections at finer pitches using a plating process to reduce the number of substrate layers to facilitate very thin packages. This innovative solution is also an enabling technology for package stacking with TSVs.
FCBGA Products : FCBGA packages are large form factor substrate-based packages which are used where processing power and speed are a higher priority than a small form factor. Our FCBGA packages are assembled using state-of-the-art substrates. Utilizing multiple high density routing layers, laser drilled vias, and ultra-fine line and space metallization, FCBGA substrates have the highest routing density available. The variety of FCBGA package options, from large single die to multi-chip packages with memory, allows package selection to be tailored to the specific thermal needs of the end product. We offer FCBGA packaging in a variety of product formats to fit a wide range of end application requirements, including networking, storage, computing, automotive and consumer applications.
Memory Products: Memory packages consist of either standalone packaging and testing or a combination of NAND Flash, DRAM, or a memory controller IC using a variety of packaging technologies, including FC, SCSP, SiP, PoP and other state-of-the-art packaging technologies. These products are used as system memory or platform data storage in all of our end markets.
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Wafer-level Package Products : We offer three types of wafer-level packages: wafer-level CSP; WLFO; and SWIFT. Wafer-level CSP and WLFO are complementary technologies. Customers can choose between the two package types as their die sizes shrink or grow.
• Wafer-level CSP packages (also known as fan-in wafer-level packages) do not utilize a package carrier. The bumped wafer is singulated into individual die, and the wafer-level package is then attached directly to the system board. Wafer-level CSP offers one of the lowest total system costs, enabling higher semiconductor content while leveraging the smallest form factor and one of the highest performing, most reliable semiconductor package platforms on the market today. Applications for wafer-level CSP include power management, transceivers, sensors, wireless charging, codecs, and specialty silicon for new or unique functionality.
• WLFO packages (also known as low-density fan-out packages) are utilized for ICs where the die surface area is too small to accommodate all of the required bond pads. The fan-out package enlarges the bondable surface area by building a border around the die using low-cost molding compound. These packages can include multiple die. Applications for WLFO packages include power management, transceivers, radar and specialty silicon.
• SWIFT, also known as high-density fan-out, can either replace the laminate substrate with a thinner structure or reduce the complexity of the substrate by housing the dense interconnects in the SWIFT structure, allowing for a less expensive substrate that provides a high level of performance with a balanced cost structure. SWIFT solutions enable high performance in a compact form factor that combines tiled processors, memory, I/O (input/output) die and other peripheral ICs.
Mainstream Products
Our Mainstream Products use wirebond interconnect technology to connect a die to a leadframe or substrate package carrier and include leadframe packages, substrate-based wirebond packages and micro-electro-mechanical systems (“MEMS”) packages.
Leadframe Packages: Leadframe packages use wirebond or flip chip technology to connect a die to a leadframe package carrier. Leadframe packages are used in many electronic devices and remain the most practical and cost-effective solution for many low to medium pin count analog and mixed signal applications.
Traditional leadframe packages support a wide variety of device types and applications. Two of our most popular traditional leadframe package types are small outline integrated circuit and quad flat package, commonly known as “dual” and “quad” products, respectively, based upon the number of sides from which the leads extend. The traditional leadframe package family has evolved from “through hole design,” where the leads are plugged into holes on the circuit board to “surface mount design,” where the leads are soldered to the surface of the circuit board. We offer a wide range of lead counts and body sizes to satisfy variations in the size of customers’ semiconductor devices.
Through a process of continuous engineering and customization, we have designed several leadframe package types that are thinner and smaller than traditional leadframe packages and can accommodate more leads on the perimeter of the package. These leadframe packages typically have superior thermal and electrical characteristics, which allow them to dissipate heat generated by high-powered semiconductor devices while providing enhanced electrical connectivity. We are developing increasingly smaller versions of these packages to keep pace with continually shrinking semiconductor device sizes and demand for miniaturization of portable electronic products. One of our more successful leadframe package offerings is the Micro LeadFrame family of quad flat no lead packages. These packages offer cost effective, miniaturized solutions for multiple analog power and signal chain applications.
Power discrete devices use a leadframe as the package carrier and primarily use wirebond interconnect technology. However, power applications that require improved thermal and electrical performance will use packaging with copper clip interconnect technology that creates multi die power modules with wafers from silicon carbide and other wide band gap materials.
Substrate-based Wirebond Packages : Substrate-based wirebond packages use wirebond technology to connect a die to a substrate. Some of our packages in this category include stacked CSP, wirebond ball grid array packages and plastic ball grid array (“PBGA”) packages.
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Stacked CSP technology enables the stacking of a wide range of different semiconductor devices to deliver high levels of silicon integration and area efficiency. Stacked CSP utilizes high density thin core substrates and advanced materials, along with leading-edge wafer thinning, die attach and molding capabilities, to stack multiple die on a substrate. Stacked CSP is ideal for memory and mixed signal applications.
Wirebond ball grid array packages offer a broad selection of ball array pitches, ball counts and body sizes, single and multi-die layouts, stacked die and passive component integration together with thermal management solutions. They are applicable for a wide range of semiconductors requiring a smaller package size than conventional PBGAs or leadframe packages.
PBGA packages are used in applications requiring higher pin count than leadframe packages, but typically have lower pin counts than flip chip. PBGA packages are designed for low inductance, improved thermal operation and enhanced surface-mount technology ability. Custom performance enhancements, like ground and power planes, are also available.
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems Packages : MEMS are miniaturized mechanical and electro-mechanical devices that can sense and provide information about the physical world and sometimes trigger a response. Examples of MEMS devices include microphones, accelerometers, airbag deployment sensors, gyrometers, magnetometers and humidity, temperature and pressure sensors. We also specialize in sensor fusion products which utilize our cavity MEMS platform and combine multiple sensors into a single package. MEMS packages leverage our expertise in wafer thinning, die stacking, wirebonding and flip chip interconnect to deliver sophisticated products with a very small form factor.
Advanced System-in-Package Modules
Advanced SiP modules combine multiple semiconductor and other electronic components with different functionalities into a single package. These modules use wirebond, flip chip or wafer-level interconnect technologies. Components can include ICs, passive devices (inductors, capacitors, resistors, filters and diplexers), antennas and mechanical parts.
The increasing demand for miniaturization and higher functionality at competitive cost is driving the adoption of advanced SiP in new products. Advanced SiP modules are used for many applications such as radio frequency (“RF”) and front-end modules, basebands, connectivity, fingerprint sensors, display and touch screen drivers, sensors and MEMS, NAND memory and solid state drives. Advanced SiP modules are found in many products including smartphones and tablets, automobiles, IoT wearables, high-performance gaming systems, computers and network systems.
In 2023, 2022 and 2021, we had net sales of approximately $2,955 million, $2,930 million and $2,280 million, respectively, from our advanced SiP modules, which are mostly included in Advanced Products, depending upon the interconnect technology used in the module.
Test Services
Our Test Services complement our wafer and packaging services across our Advanced and Mainstream Products. Our test services offer customers the cycle time and cost advantages of co-located turn-key services. Our test services are used as both an interim step or as the final testing step to ensure screening and rejection of defects, performance grading and overall outgoing quality and reliability. Interim testing eliminates the manufacturing costs of assembling the defective chips. Below is a description of our test services:
Wafer Level Test: Wafer level test is a manufacturing step performed while a wafer is still in its full form and before being singulated for further package processing.
Package Level Test: Package level test is performed on a product or products that have been assembled in a package.
Burn-In Test: Burn-in test is a process in which components of a system are exercised, monitored and measured in extreme operational conditions such as high temperature, voltage and frequency over time. The purpose of the environmental and operational stress conditions of burn-in testing is to accelerate and screen early life failures and estimate and monitor long-term degradation and ultimate lifetime.
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System Level Test: System level test identifies defective SiP products that may not otherwise be screened by traditional wafer level, package level or burn-in testing. As advanced packaging proliferates and the integration of more individual components into a SiP grows, system level testing becomes more important.
Test Development Services: Prior to mass production, an integrated manufacturing ready test solution must be developed and deployed. Amkor’s test development services offer both co-development and full development of complete test software and hardware solutions to our customers. These services also enable early engagement with our customers in the product design phases for maximum compatibility with manufacturing. Our test development teams are experienced in a full suite of test engineering disciplines for Memory, Power, RF, Mixed Signal, Analog and digital test solution development.
End Markets
The following table lists the end markets that use our products and sets forth, for the periods indicated, the percentage of net sales in each end market:
2023 2022 2021
End Market Distribution Data (an approximation including representative devices and applications based on a sampling of our largest customers):
Communications (smartphones, tablets) 50 % 44 % 41 %
Automotive, industrial and other (ADAS, electrification, infotainment, safety) 21 % 20 % 21 %
Computing (data center, infrastructure, PC/laptop, storage) 16 % 16 % 16 %
Consumer (AR & gaming, connected home, home electronics, wearables) 13 % 20 % 22 %
Total net sales 100 % 100 % 100 %
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
We believe that technology development is one of the keys to success in the semiconductor packaging and test industry. Our research efforts focus on developing new packaging solutions and test services, as well as improving the efficiency and capabilities of our existing production processes. By concentrating our research and development on our customers’ needs for innovative packages, increased performance, higher density, smaller size and lower cost, we gain opportunities to enter markets early, successfully compete for new products and promote our new package offerings as industry leading technology.
One of our priorities is developing highly integrated SiP modules, such as DSMBGA packages, to reduce material and processing costs and minimize form factor for wearables and mobile devices. Another important focus area is the development of wafer-level and panel-level packages for chips in 2D and 3D system implementations. These wafer-level chip-scale packages and WLFO packages are increasingly the preferred package type for many applications in IoT and mobile devices, including processors, power management integrated circuits (“PMICs”), display drivers and antenna package products. Our development of Panel Level Fan Out (“PLFO”) technology will permit higher economies of scale for fan-out package devices manufactured on a panel versus wafer basis. We are also developing new applications for the automotive market using existing and new package technologies as higher performance computing, energy efficiency, power distribution and sensor content are used to support new automotive features including ADAS, infotainment, optical sensors and electric vehicles. In addition, we are developing high power modules involving SiC-based devices.
Another focus for development is integrated multi-die solutions, including multichip modules and high-density WLFO solutions, which enable package level integration of different types and levels of silicon technologies for high performance computing, networking and data center applications. This is accomplished by combining processors and other chiplets into one packaged module. Through die partitioning and heterogeneous integration, these modules provide higher functionality at lower total product cost.
Our research and development employees are based in Korea, Portugal, the United States and other locations in Asia. At December 31, 2023, we had approximately 950 employees engaged in research and development activities. In 2023, 2022 and 2021, we incurred $177.5 million, $149.4 million and $166.0 million, respectively, of research and development expense.
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SALES AND MARKETING
Our sales offices are located throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. Our support personnel manage and promote our packaging and test services and provide key customer and technical support. To provide comprehensive sales and customer service, we typically assign our customers a direct support team consisting of an account manager, technical program manager, test program manager and both field and factory customer support representatives. We also support our largest multinational customers from multiple office locations to ensure that we are aligned with their global operational and business requirements.
Our direct support teams are further supported by an extended staff of product, process, quality and reliability engineers, as well as marketing and advertising specialists, information systems technicians and factory personnel. Together, these direct and extended support teams deliver an array of services to our customers.
SEASONALITY
Our sales have generally been higher in the second half of the year than in the first half due to consumer buying patterns in the U.S., Europe and Asia and the timing of flagship mobile device launches. In addition, semiconductor companies generally reduce their production during the holidays at the end of December, which generally results in a decrease in packaging and test services during the first quarter. General economic conditions, changes in our product mix or overall demand in any of our end markets can impact our seasonality.
CUSTOMERS
Our customers include many of the largest semiconductor companies in the world. Our ten largest customers accounted for 69% of our net sales in 2023. Direct sales to Apple Inc. accounted for 27.7% of our net sales for the year ended December 31, 2023.
MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT
Materials
Our materials are used primarily for packaging activities. Our packaging operations depend upon obtaining adequate supplies of materials on a timely basis. The principal materials used in our packaging process are laminate substrates, ICs, capacitors, leadframes and gold wire. The silicon wafer is generally consigned from the customer. We generally do not take ownership of the customer consigned wafer, and title and risk of loss remains with the customer for these materials. Test materials constitute a very small portion of our total test cost. Generally, we purchase materials based on Amkor’s commitments to customer forecasts, and our customers are generally responsible for any unused materials we purchase based on such commitments.
We obtain the materials required for packaging services from various suppliers and source most of our materials, including critical materials such as leadframes, laminate substrates and gold wire, from a limited group of suppliers. We work closely with our primary material suppliers to ensure consistent quality, availability and timely delivery. We also negotiate worldwide pricing agreements with our major suppliers to take advantage of the scale of our operations.
Equipment
Our ability to meet the changing demand from our customers for manufacturing capacity depends upon obtaining packaging and test equipment in a timely manner. We work closely with our main equipment suppliers to coordinate the ordering and delivery of equipment to meet our expected capacity needs.
The primary types of equipment used in providing our packaging services are wirebonders, die bonders, chip shooters, and die attach. In addition, we maintain a variety of other packaging equipment, including mold, singulation, ball attach and wafer backgrind, along with numerous other types of manufacturing equipment. A substantial portion of our packaging equipment base can generally be used and adapted to support the manufacture of many of our packages, with equipment used in traditional wirebond packaging being easier to redeploy than the equipment used in advanced packaging.
We also purchase wafer bumping equipment to facilitate our flip chip and wafer level packaging services. Wafer bumping equipment includes sputter and spin coaters, electroplating equipment, reflow ovens and other types of
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equipment. This equipment tends to have longer lead times for delivery and installation than other packaging equipment and is sold in relatively larger increments of capacity.
The primary equipment used in the testing process includes testers, handlers and probers. Handlers are used to transfer individual or small groups of packaged ICs to a tester. Test equipment is generally a more capital-intensive activity than packaging, and test equipment tends to have longer delivery lead times than most types of packaging equipment. We focus our capital expenditures on standardized tester platforms to maximize test equipment utilization where possible. For tester platforms that are less standardized, we generally lease test equipment for the expected life cycle of the project. In some cases, our customers will consign test equipment to us.
GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONS
As a public company with global operations, we are subject to various federal, state, local, and foreign laws, and our products and services are governed by a number of rules and regulations. These regulations, which differ among jurisdictions, include financial and other external reporting disclosure rules, accounting standards, and environmental, corporate governance, intellectual property, tax, trade, antitrust, employment, immigration and travel, privacy and anti-corruption laws. Costs and accruals incurred to comply with these governmental regulations are presently not material to our capital expenditures, results of operations and competitive position. Although there is no assurance that existing or future government laws applicable to our operations, services or products will not have a material adverse effect on our capital expenditures, results of operations and competitive position, we do not currently anticipate material expenditures for compliance with government regulations.
Environmental Matters
We use chemicals and materials in the semiconductor packaging process that generate byproducts such as wastewater, solid waste and flue gas. For example, water used for rinsing or cooling wafers being sawed or used in the etching or solder deposition process produces wastewater. Scrap from metal lead-frame or substrate processing or excessive molding resin produces solid waste. Emissions from solvents used for coating produce flue gases. In addition to byproducts, semiconductor packages have historically contained lead, a naturally occurring element that can be toxic. The use of lead in our packages has decreased over time due to the use of lead-free alternatives. The use and storage of chemicals and materials are subject to various laws and regulations governing waste disposal, water discharge, emissions into the atmosphere and employee health and safety. We are engaged in continuing efforts to comply with these environmental laws and regulations, including the establishment of environmental management systems, safety training for employees and installation of pollution control equipment at our factories.
In the future, we may be subject to changes to existing environmental regulations or new green initiatives required by our customers, investors, governments or other stakeholders. We do not believe that capital expenditures or other costs attributable to compliance with environmental laws and regulations or green initiatives will have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.
We are also committed to responsible environmental practices that go beyond legal requirements in conducting our business. These environmental practices include:
• Certification of our factories worldwide to International Organization for Standards (“ISO”) framework 14001, widely recognized as the standard for effective environmental management systems.
• Measurement and independent verification of greenhouse gases (“GHGs”) generated by our factories worldwide. Once collected, our GHG data is submitted to, and disclosed publicly by, CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project. CDP is a leading organization that assesses the impact of climate change and promotes a sustainable economy.
• Membership in the Responsible Business Alliance (“RBA”), an international industry group dedicated to corporate social responsibility. RBA members agree to follow a uniform Code of Conduct that includes standards of environmental responsibility, and our factories have been subject to independent audits to assess compliance with these standards.
• Capital investment and process optimization activities to reduce GHGs include installation of solar photovoltaic panels, replacement of, or improvements to, chiller unit systems and use of light-emitting diode (“LED”) technology.
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COMPETITION
The outsourced semiconductor packaging and test market is very competitive. We face substantial competition from established packaging and test service providers primarily located in Asia, including companies with significant manufacturing capacity, financial resources, research and development operations, marketing and other capabilities. These companies include ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. and JCET Group Co., Ltd. In addition, we compete with electronic manufacturing service providers or contract electronics manufacturers, including Universal Scientific Industrial (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., that also provide advanced integrated device solutions. Such companies also have developed relationships with most of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, including current or potential customers of Amkor.
We also compete with the internal semiconductor packaging and test capabilities of many of our customers. Our IDM customers continually evaluate the attractiveness of outsourced services against their own in-house packaging and test services and at times may decide to shift some or all of their outsourced packaging and test services to internally sourced capacity. We also compete with contract foundries, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, which offer full turnkey services from silicon wafer fabrication through packaging and final test. In addition, we compete with companies that offer test-only services.
The principal elements of competition in the outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services market include price, available capacity, flexibility, quality, customer service and support, new product introduction experience, cycle time, reputation and reliability, customer satisfaction, technological expertise and innovation, breadth of packaging and test services offered, including turnkey services, and the ability to invest in capacity, geographic location and scale of manufacturing. We believe that we compete favorably with respect to each of these elements.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
We maintain an active program to protect and derive value from our investment in technology and the associated intellectual property rights. Intellectual property rights that apply to our various products and services include patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks. We have filed and obtained a number of patents in the U.S. and other countries, and their durations vary depending on the jurisdiction in which each patent is filed. Although our patents are an important element of our intellectual property strategy, we are not materially dependent on any one patent or any one technology. We expect to continue to file patent applications when appropriate to protect our proprietary technologies, but we cannot provide assurances that we will receive patents from pending or future applications. In addition, any patents we obtain could be challenged, invalidated or circumvented and may not provide meaningful protection or other commercial advantage to us. Nonetheless, we believe that our patents afford an important means of protection for our technologies. Further, to distinguish our products from our competitors’ products, we have obtained certain trademarks and service marks and may promote our particular brands through advertising and other marketing techniques.
We also protect and maintain the confidentiality of certain information about our processes, products and strategies which we believe provides us with a competitive advantage. We have ongoing programs designed to maintain the confidentiality of such information. As part of these efforts, all employees who have access to Amkor’s information systems are required to participate in cybersecurity training within the first 15 days of employment, after which recurring mandatory training is required on an annual basis.
HUMAN CAPITAL RESOURCES
Employees
Amkor believes that its future success is highly dependent upon our continued ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified employees. As part of our effort to attract and motivate employees, Amkor is committed to providing competitive and comprehensive benefits that are designed to enable our employees and their families to live healthier and more secure lives. Additionally, Amkor has implemented various retention programs to incentivize and retain high-performing employees. We regularly evaluate such retention programs and our compensation practices generally to ensure they remain competitive and are aligned with local market practices. We look to promote our management-level employees from within Amkor, and we believe that we have been successful in this effort. Factory locations also maintain training and development programs that enable the continued learning and growth of our employees, and senior management regularly meets to share and implement best practices among our various facilities.
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Amkor also uses human capital initiatives to support our broad geographic footprint. For career development and advancement, we may provide employees with the opportunity to move between factories, often in support of new factories or the introduction of new packaging offerings. We believe that these initiatives are efficient for training new local employees and allow existing employees to continue to develop in their careers.
We believe that our efforts to motivate, retain and support the growth of qualified employees is reflected in the long average tenure of our key employees.
As of December 31, 2023, Amkor employed 28,700 employees, of whom approximately 96%, 3% and 1% resided in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States, respectively. Our global workforce spans 12 countries, reflecting various cultures, backgrounds, ages, genders and ethnicities. Of our global employee base, 91% are employed in manufacturing roles. Our employees in France, Germany, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam and the United States are not represented by any union. Certain employees at our factories in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Portugal are members of a union, and we operate subject to collective bargaining agreements that we have entered into with these unions. We believe that our relations with our employees are good, and we have not experienced a work stoppage in any of our factories.
Health and Safety
The health and safety of our employees is very important to us and, accordingly, we endeavor to provide comprehensive health benefits to our full-time employees. Our focus on health and safety is further evident in our response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Because our business involves the manufacturing and testing of physical products, many of our employees have been unable to work from home. To keep our employees safe and to maintain operations during the Covid-19 pandemic, we implemented increased health and safety-related measures across our global footprint. While the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic remains uncertain, we have retained those enhanced measures as part of our commitment to protect the health and safety of our employees.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
Amkor files annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. The SEC maintains a website that contains annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information that issuers (including Amkor) file electronically with the SEC. The SEC’s website is www.sec.gov .
Amkor’s website is www.amkor.com. Amkor makes available, free of charge, through its website: our annual reports on Form 10-K; quarterly reports on Form 10-Q; current reports on Form 8-K; Forms 3, 4 and 5 filed on behalf of directors and executive officers; and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. We also make available, free of charge, through our website, our Corporate Governance Guidelines, the charters of the Audit Committee, Nominating and Governance Committee and Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors, our Code of Business Conduct, our Code of Ethics for Directors and other information and materials. The information on Amkor’s website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K.