LG Innotek Co.’s “Dream Factory,” a flip-chip ball grid array (FC-BGA) production plant in South Korea’s Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, was quiet, with the periodic “beep” sounds from automated equipment filling the otherwise quiet space when Maeil Business Newspaper paid a visit on Thursday.

The facility, spanning an area equivalent to three football fields, was essentially an unmanned factory operated by equipment and robots rather than people. It produces hundreds of thousands of semiconductor substrates daily, with the equipment autonomously loading operating conditions and robots handling product transport, implementing the unmanned smart factory LG Innotek has built to meet its global clients’ stringent standards.

FC-BGA is a high-performance substrate that connects semiconductor chips to the mainboard. If the chip is the brain, the FC-BGA is the spinal cord delivering signals and power, and the vascular network through which data flows.

LG Innotek, which is Korean conglomerate LG Group’s information technology component unit, entered the FC-BGA business for the first time in 2022 as it targeted the high-value-added semiconductor substrate market. Recognizing the market shift driven by the surge in data processing and expanding demand for artificial intelligence (AI), the company set a goal to grow FC-BGA into a trillion-won (more than $705 million) business by 2030.

The reason the Dream Factory pursues “unmanned operation” is due to the demanding nature of the product. FC-BGA substrates are used in high-speed computing components such as central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) that require extreme precision and reliability, and even a single particle of fine dust or moisture from human breath can lead to defects. Workers enter the cleanroom wearing anti-dust suits, double-layered gloves, masks, and sanitary caps, but they do not directly engage in the production process.

Most of the production line operates without human presence, with multiple autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) transporting materials inside the factory. When an order is received according to the real-time production schedule, the equipment automatically scans the barcode of the raw materials and sets the production conditions via the Recipe Management System to manufacture the substrates.

The Dream Factory currently mass-produces FC-BGA for PCs used by major North American big tech companies. LG Innotek secured an additional client among the top global five in 2025 to date and plans to enter the server-use FC-BGA market from 2026 onwards.

[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단 전재, 재배포 및 AI학습 이용 금지]