IN Brief:
- SCHMID will supply wet-processing equipment to a US-based developer establishing a glass-core substrate manufacturing facility in South Asia.
- The project will use through-glass via technology for advanced semiconductor packages incorporating multiple chips and specialised interconnections.
- The customer is targeting approximately 70,000 glass panels annually at full capacity, although equipment delivery and production ramp dates have not been disclosed.
SCHMID Group has secured an order to supply wet-processing equipment for a planned glass-core substrate manufacturing facility in South Asia, supporting the development of industrial-scale production capacity for advanced semiconductor packaging.
The German equipment manufacturer will provide systems for critical processing operations to an unnamed US-based developer of glass packaging technology. The customer's planned facility is designed to produce approximately 70,000 glass panels annually once fully ramped, alongside glass interposers and modules for three-dimensional heterogeneous integration.
The customer describes the project as South Asia's first advanced packaging facility built around glass substrates and three-dimensional heterogeneous integration. It has spent nearly two decades developing proprietary photo-definable glass-ceramic materials and through-glass via technology, with the new investment intended to extend production beyond development and pilot manufacturing.
SCHMID has not disclosed the value of its equipment order, the precise location of the facility, or the planned production start date. The 70,000-panel figure represents the customer's intended annual capacity rather than an existing manufacturing output.
Glass-core substrates are being developed as an alternative to conventional organic substrate structures in advanced semiconductor packages. The substrate provides mechanical support and carries electrical connections between semiconductor devices and the wider electronic assembly.
Increasingly complex packages can incorporate several processing chiplets, high-bandwidth memory, and specialised interface devices within a single structure. Electrical connections must be routed between these components while maintaining signal quality, power distribution, and mechanical reliability.
As package dimensions and connection counts increase, dimensional stability becomes a greater manufacturing constraint. Small variations in substrate dimensions or flatness can affect the alignment of fine electrical structures during repeated processing and assembly operations.
Organic substrate materials can exhibit expansion, contraction, and warpage under changing manufacturing temperatures. These effects must be controlled when forming fine interconnections across large package areas, particularly where several fabrication stages depend on accurate alignment with structures produced earlier.
Glass offers comparatively high dimensional stability and low warpage in suitable constructions. Its properties can support the development of finer line-and-space structures and dense electrical interconnections, although the resulting performance depends on substrate composition, fabrication quality, and the completed package design.
Producing electrical connections through glass introduces a separate set of manufacturing requirements. Through-glass vias, commonly referred to as TGVs, provide openings through the insulating substrate that can subsequently be metallised to create conductive paths between its surfaces.
Via formation must produce the required geometry without introducing unacceptable cracking, damage, or variation in the surrounding glass. The surfaces then need to be prepared for subsequent processing so that conductive materials can form reliable electrical connections.
Metallisation requires suitable adhesion and electrical continuity through the via structure. Defects such as incomplete coverage, voids, or contamination can interrupt conduction or reduce reliability during thermal cycling and prolonged operation.
Wet-processing equipment contributes to selected cleaning, surface preparation, and chemical processing stages. The treatment must be sufficiently uniform across the substrate, including the relevant surfaces within the vias, while avoiding damage to the glass or previously deposited materials.
Large panel formats introduce additional handling and process-control requirements. The substrate must remain adequately supported through cleaning, transfer, and subsequent manufacturing operations, with the equipment maintaining consistent chemistry and treatment conditions across the panel.
Variation between central and edge regions can affect the quality of fabricated structures. Process engineers must therefore consider chemical distribution, temperature, treatment duration, contamination, and the mechanical characteristics of the glass when establishing a repeatable manufacturing sequence.
SCHMID's advanced packaging portfolio includes equipment and process solutions covering wet processing, plating, and vacuum metallisation. The company also supplies InfinityLine platforms used for IC substrates, high-density interconnect manufacturing, and modified semi-additive processing.
The new contract concerns key wet-processing equipment rather than a complete turnkey production facility. SCHMID has not identified the individual tool models included in the order or disclosed which other suppliers will provide equipment for the remaining manufacturing stages.
Process integration will be important because the quality of the completed substrate depends on the relationship between via formation, surface preparation, metallisation, and subsequent interconnection layers. Acceptable results at one stage do not guarantee that the completed panel will satisfy electrical and reliability requirements.
Panel breakage, processing defects, and unsuccessful electrical connections can reduce the number of usable substrates obtained from each manufacturing run. Consistent yield is particularly important when production moves from limited pilot quantities to larger annual volumes.
The customer intends to serve applications including AI accelerators, high-performance computing, data centre equipment, 5G communications, and aerospace and defence electronics. These markets increasingly use packages that combine several semiconductor technologies or functions within one assembly.
The electrical properties of glass substrates can support particular interconnect designs, but their use does not independently establish improved computing performance. Signal integrity depends on conductor geometry, material properties, interconnect length, impedance control, and the behaviour of the complete package.
The same applies to thermal performance. Glass has different thermal characteristics from conventional packaging materials, so the package architecture must provide suitable routes for heat generated by its active semiconductor devices.
SCHMID expects to record the equipment contract in its fourth-quarter 2026 order intake. The company's involvement establishes an equipment-supply commitment as the customer develops its manufacturing capability, while installation, process qualification, and production ramp-up remain future stages.
Successful industrialisation will require the customer to demonstrate repeatable TGV formation, reliable metallisation, suitable panel handling, and acceptable manufacturing yields at the intended scale. Those results will determine how effectively the planned capacity can be converted into commercially usable advanced packaging substrates.
