The top of Samsung’s semiconductor unit acknowledged final week that the corporate’s present mass manufacturing, modern course of applied sciences are a few years behind TSMC’s most superior manufacturing nodes. However Samsung is working laborious to meet up with its bigger rival in 5 years.
“To be trustworthy, Samsung Electronics’ foundry expertise lags behind TSMC,” stated Dr. Kye Hyun Kyung, the pinnacle of the Samsung Electronics System Options Division, overseeing world operations of the Reminiscence, System LSI and Foundry enterprise items,” at a lecture on the Korea Superior Institute of Science & Know-how (KAIST), experiences Hankyung. “We are able to outperform TSMC inside 5 years.”
Samsung has been investing tens of billions of {dollars} in its foundry division within the current years in a bid to meet up with TSMC and Intel, each by way of manufacturing capability for LSI chips in addition to course of expertise benefits. The corporate has considerably closed the hole with its rivals, however it’s nonetheless not fairly on par with TSMC’s fabrication applied sciences with regards to efficiency, energy, space (transistor density), and price metrics.
Whereas Samsung Foundry is the primary contract maker of chips to undertake gate-all-around (GAA) transistors with its SF3E (3GAE, 3 nm, gate-all-around early) node, and the corporate’s prospects are enthusiastic concerning the expertise itself and the novel transistor structure, this course of shouldn’t be used for Samsung’s personal modern system-on-chips for smartphones.
“Prospects’ response to Samsung Electronics’ 3nm GAA course of is sweet,” stated Dr. Kye Hyun Kyung.
In the meantime, Samsung’s newest Galaxy S23-series makes use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC is made by TSMC on its N4 fabrication course of.
Samsung Foundry’s most superior expertise that can be utilized to make highly-complex SoCs for smartphones or different demanding functions is SF4 (4LPP, 4 nm, low-power plus), which, as the corporate admits, is considerably behind TSMC’s N3 (N3B) node, is rumored for use for mass manufacturing of Apple’s highly-complex SoCs at the moment.
The corporate might considerably shut the hole with TSMC’s N3 and N4P with its SF4P (4LPP+) that can be out there for purchasers later this yr, in response to a clarification printed by @Tech_Reve.
Samsung Foundry can have a greater probability to meet up with TSMC when its SF3 (3GAP) fabrication node enters excessive quantity manufacturing in 2024, although by the point TSMC can even offer its extra superior N3P manufacturing expertise. Across the similar time Samsung additionally plans to supply SF4X (4HPC), a 4 nm-class fabrication expertise that may (because the identify suggests) handle high-performance CPUs and GPUs.
Samsung reportedly believes that transition to GAA transistors within the 2022 ~ 2023 timeframe makes an important sense since it should have time to repair teething issues of the brand new structure forward of its rivals, most notably Intel and TSMC. Consequently, once they begin fabbing chips on their 2 nm-class applied sciences (20A, N2) in 2024 – 2025 and probably encounter the identical points that Samsung is fixing at the moment, its SF2 node will be capable of provide a greater mixture of energy, efficiency, transistor density, prices, and yields.
Supply: Hankyung.com (through @Tech_Reve)
