Samsung unveils HBM base die evolution at Hot Chips 2026

At the Hot Chips 2026 conference, Samsung presented its strategy for evolving High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) base dies to meet increasing performance and power demands. As HBM generations advance, the industry faces challenges in scaling bandwidth and managing power consumption.

Samsung is addressing these issues by transitioning the HBM base die (B-die) from traditional DRAM-class nodes to advanced logic processes. For HBM4 and HBM4E, the company is utilizing a 4nm logic process. This shift is intended to mitigate rising power draw and improve density, providing more opportunities for optimization.

Because the physical area of the base die is largely dictated by the DRAM dies stacked above it, Samsung is exploring ways to utilize unused area. One primary investigation involves moving the memory controller directly onto the HBM base die. This would allow the base die to manage low-level tasks—such as precharging rows, switching bus modes, and refreshing cells—which are conventionally handled by a host memory controller.