Merck showcases AI chip materials platform at Semicon Korea 2025

Korea Herald

20-02-2025

German technology firm Merck showcased its new artificial intelligence-driven chip materials platform, which has impressively reduced research and development time for critical materials used in advanced chips, at this year's Semicon Korea, Thursday.
'Without materials, AI wouldn't be possible. To power AI, we need powerful, compact and energy efficient chips, which increases complexity in both chip architecture and manufacturing processes," said Anand Nambiar, chief commercial officer of Merck Electronics, during a press conference held on the sidelines of Semicon Korea 2025, running from Wednesday to Friday in Seoul.
"This is where materials solutions can play a critical role in addressing the physical and economic challenges faced by chipmakers."
According to Nambiar, Merck's Materials Intelligence platform has enabled the company's researchers to run simulations instead of physical experiments to effectively reduce the time needed for its basic chemistry research.
"We're learning how data digitalization is helping us answer some of the challenges that we've faced for decades," the CCO said.
As demand is rising for advanced AI chips, Merck is working to converge material science with AI to develop new solutions for AI-enabling technologies, including Gate All-Around, high-density memory and HBM chips.
This year, the company will also focus on facility investment, especially on thin-film materials and specialty gases.
Regarding the impact of the second-term of the Trump administration, Nambiar acknowledged there may be "a little transition" as governments, including the US and Japan, are introducing measures to bring chip manufacturing onto their soil.
"Asia still represents 80 percent of semiconductor capacity. Korea and Taiwan are leading countries where capacity is installed, and leading edge customers are present," Nambiar said.
During the three-day Semicon event, Merck focused on materials for advanced logic and 3D densification in DRAM and 3D NAND memory chips. This includes enhanced features in Atomic Layer Deposition for advanced nodes, spin-on dielectrics (SOD) materials for gap fill technology and organometallics solutions for FinFet-architecture DRAM, among others.
"We have been an innovation partner to our Korean customers for 36 years, and we are committed to supporting their future growth. This includes the recently inaugurated Korea SOD Application Center in Anseong, announced last year, and ongoing investments in new product lines at the Eumseong site," said Kim Woo-kyu, managing director of Merck Korea.
"We will continue to fulfill our investment commitment to enhance our local capability and capacity for faster and more responsive support and services."
The Germany-based chemical materials firm entered the Korean market in 1989, and now operates 13 production and R&D sites with over 1,700 employees, making Korea its second-largest business hub after the US.