The reputation of Samsung’s foundry products have suffered a major blow after contaminated equipment was found on an 8-inch wafer line located at the Giheung Plant in Korea. Officials claim that operations have returned to normal, but the damage has already been done, which is “estimated at billions of Korean won.” Experts suggest that the cost could actually be far higher.
Irrespective of the scale of the damage, it really hurts Samsung Electronics that the defects themselves occurred to the global semiconductor leader. This is because Samsung Electronics is investing heavily in the foundry sector to take the global No. 1 position in the system semiconductor sector by 2030.