TeraView (950250), a British company listed on KOSDAQ, is expanding the scope of its inspection equipment from semiconductor packaging to the artificial intelligence (AI) data center market. As global big tech firms rush to build AI data centers, the company plans to enter the new market by extending the application of its flagship product, "EOTPR," to inspecting panels inside data center racks.
Don Arnone, CEO of TeraView, began a Wednesday interview with The Seoul Economic Daily by introducing the company's proprietary "terahertz technology." "Terahertz, which lies between electromagnetic waves and light, long lacked a powerful light source or sensitive detectors," Arnone said. "TeraView developed a terahertz sensor and brought it all the way to commercialized equipment."
EOTPR was originally developed to inspect advanced packaging for Intel's CPUs. As demand for AI semiconductors grew, its scope expanded to all key components used in AI chips, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM) devices, GPUs and substrates. "Terahertz beams capture even micro defects that are difficult to detect with X-rays, improving yields," Arnone explained. Its major customers include Intel, Nvidia, Samsung and AMD.
TeraView aims to expand the inspection scope of EOTPR even further. Inside the racks that go into AI data centers, hundreds of chips and connectors are spread across a wide panel. TeraView recently won a 2.6 billion won project from a global AI chip company to develop this large-area panel inspection equipment. "In the early stages of research, we will focus on expanding the inspection area to about 1m by 2m, and later advance to full automation and mass production," Arnone said.
TeraView's other major product is "TeraCota," a coating inspection device for automobiles and secondary batteries. Noting that Korea has a concentration of downstream industry infrastructure such as semiconductors and automobiles, TeraView became the first British company to list on the KOSDAQ market last December. It recently joined hands with robot solutions firm Doorim Yaskawa to sign a contract to supply TeraCota to Korea's largest automaker.
TeraView aims to double the combined total of its revenue and order backlog to current levels by the end of its April accounting period next year. Considering that cumulative revenue stood at 6.3 billion won and order backlog at 5.1 billion won as of January this year, the combined total is expected to surpass at least 20 billion won. "We will successfully carry out the development of the large-area panel inspection for AI data centers we recently won and secure follow-up orders," Arnone said.
