South Korea-based SK Hynix teased preparation of the first shipment of its next-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM) chip for a customer widely thought to be Nvidia later in the month, after commencing mass production of the HBM3E silicon.

The chipmaker stated it was the first to mass produce a fifth generation HBM chip, with shipments scheduled seven months after development of HBM3E was announced.

Sungsoo Ryu, head of SK Hynix’s HBM business, said the success of the unit and strong customer partnerships built over years mean the company will “cement its position as the total AI memory provider”.

Since AI memory operates at an extremely high speed, controlling heat is a key requirement: SK Hynix stated HBM3E delivers a 10 per cent improvement in heat-dissipation compared with the previous generation using the advanced mass reflow moulded underfill (MR-MUF) process.

SK Hynix explained MR-MUF is the process of stacking semiconductors and injecting liquid materials between them “to protect the circuit between chips, and hardening them”.

It added the process proved to be “more efficient and effective for heat dissipation compared with the method of laying film-type materials for each chip stack”.

The company argued the process is “critical to securing a stable mass production on the supply side of the HBM ecosystem”.

Reuters reported last week rival Samsung, which uses the non-conductive film method, is looking to deploy the MR-MUF technique to improve the production yield of its HBM chips.