Samsung Foundry Forum 2021 | Samsung 2nm Process | Samsung 3nm Process
In the foundry market, the only one that can compete with TSMC is Samsung, the two sides in the progress of advanced processes are not giving up on each other, 7nm, 5nm, 3nm, 2nm you catch up. In the latest Samsung Foundry Forum 2021 conference, Samsung disclosed the latest process progress and roadmap.
The process of moving to a new generation of chip manufacturing technology is complex. A single chip is made up of billions of transistors smaller than a speck of dust. Chip manufacturing plants need to etch circuit patterns on silicon wafers, a process that requires dozens of steps and takes months.
Advances in chip manufacturing technology stem from the continued miniaturization of transistors, which allows more transistors to be compressed on the chip, thereby increasing processing speed and reducing power consumption. Samsung’s next-generation chip manufacturing technology, 3GAE, uses a technology called “Gate-All-Around” (GAA).
FinFET transistor structure potential has almost been tapped out, Samsung’s next step is GAA Gate-All-Around, 3nm process is divided into two versions, of which 3GAE (low-power version) will be put into mass production in early 2022, 3GAP (high-performance version) will be mass production in early 2023.
Compared to 5nm, Samsung’s first 3nm GAA process node utilizing MBCFET allows for a 35% reduction in area, a 30% increase in performance at the same power consumption, and a 50% reduction in power consumption at the same performance.
The Samsung 2nm process does not appear on the public roadmap, but, Samsung’s senior vice president of foundry marketing strategy, revealed that the 2GAP process node with MBCFET will be in mass production in 2025.
This is the first time revealed the Samsung 2nm process planning, but Samsung also warned that the progress of the new process also depends on customer planning and deployment, so we speculate that 2026 may be a more reasonable time to see Samsung 2nm process products on the market. TSMC’s side of the 2nm process is expected to be in mass production in 2024, about a year ahead of Samsung.
This means that Samsung customers will not be able to use this cutting-edge technology until next year. Samsung chip foundry customers include cell phone chip design company Qualcomm, server maker IBM, and Samsung’s products. But the good news is that Samsung announced that it will achieve 2-nanometer chip manufacturing technology in the second half of 2025. Samsung said that this will enable the chip in performance, energy efficiency, and miniaturization of electronic products to continue to move forward.
