Samsung Challenges TSMC and Intel with New SoP Chip Packaging for Ultra-Large Panels

Samsung Pushes SoP Packaging on Ultra-Large Panel, Challenging TSMC and Intel

Image Credits: Samsung

As per ZDNet, Samsung Electronics is emerging with System-on-Panel (SoP), a progressive semiconductor packaging process. The statement records that if SoP develops quickly, Samsung could play a role in Tesla’s next-generation Dojo packing supply chain. Currently, Tesla's strategy is to have its “AI6” chip for the Dojo factory made by Samsung’s factory and packaged by Intel, the report specifies.

As clarified in the report, SoP integrated semiconductors on an extra-large sheet, allowing much larger components than predictable packaging permits. Instead of utilizing a printed circuit board (PCB) or a silicon interposer, which is a thin layer between the chip and the board, SoP mounts numerous semiconductors directly on a rectangular panel, with chip-to-chip networks formed through good copper redistribution layers (RDL) on the underside of each chip.

TSMC’s SoW and Next-Gen SoW-X: The Main Rival to Samsung’s SoP

The report records that SoP’s chief competitor is TSMC’s System-on-Wafer (SoW), which has a comparable architecture but makes packaging on a wafer instead of a panel. Corporations such as Cerebras and Tesla have utilized SoW to mass-harvest semiconductors for supercomputing.

As the report proposes, Samsung could increase its control over TSMC if it commercializes SoP. TSMC’s SoW is supposedly inhibited by the 300 mm wafer size in innovative chipmaking, restricting rectangular modules to around 210 × 210 mm. In disparity, Samsung’s 415 × 510 mm SoP sheet can lodge modules over 210 mm on one side, permitting, for example, two ultra-large 240 × 240 mm modules to be shaped at once.

TSMC continues to progress in the field of unconventional packaging. At its 2025 North America Technology Symposium, the corporation proclaimed that subsequent to the launch of SoW in 2024, it is now presenting SoW-X, which is a wafer-scale scheme based on CoWoS technology, planned to offer 40 times the computing power of existing CoWoS explanations. SoW-X is scheduled for mass manufacturing in 2027, as per its press release.

Tesla’s Dojo Plans Connecting Both Samsung and Intel

Samsung’s growth of new packaging technology could fortify its role in Tesla’s supply chain. The description records that Tesla's goals are to use progressive packaging to differentiate its AI semiconductors for robotics, autonomous driving, and data centres, likely growing demand from foremost chipmakers for explanations planned for ultra-large components.

The report also positions that Tesla is anticipated to accept Intel’s Embedded Multidie Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology for Dojo 3. If confirmed, this would generate an extraordinary supply chain together with Samsung Electronics’ foundry processes with Intel’s OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing) proficiencies.