Samsung Electronics has unveiled plans for continuous process technology migration to 3nm and 2nm based on the company’s Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor structure at its recent 5th annual Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) 2021.

At this year’s event, Samsung shared its vision to bolster its leadership in the rapidly evolving foundry market by taking each respective part of foundry business to the next level: process technology, manufacturing operations, and foundry services.

“We will increase our overall production capacity and lead the most advanced technologies while taking silicon scaling a step further and continuing technological innovation by application,” said Dr. Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “Amid further digitalization prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, our customers and partners will discover the limitless potential of silicon implementation for delivering the right technology at the right time.”

With its enhanced power, performance and flexible design capability, Samsung’s unique GAA technology, Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MBCFET), is essential for continuing process migration. Samsung’s first 3nm GAA process node utilizing MBCFET will allow up to 35% decrease in area, 30% higher performance or 50% lower power consumption compared to the 5nm process. In addition to power, performance, and area (PPA) improvements, as its process maturity has increased, 3nm’s logic yield is approaching a similar level to the 4nm process, which is currently in mass production.

Samsung is scheduled to start producing its customers’ first 3nm-based chip designs in the first half of 2022, while its second generation of 3nm is expected in 2023. Newly added to Samsung’s technology roadmap, the 2nm process node with MBCFET is in the early stages of development with mass production in 2025.

FinFET for CIS, DDI, MCU – 17nm specialty process technology debuts

Samsung Foundry is continuously improving its FinFET process technology to support specialty products with cost-effective and application-specific competitiveness. A good example of this is the company’s 17nm FinFET process node. In addition to the intrinsic benefits afforded by FinFET, the process node has excellent performance and power efficiency leveraging a 3D transistor architecture. Consequently, Samsung’s 17nm FinFET provides up to 43% decrease in area, 39% higher performance, or a 49% increase in power efficiency compared to the 28nm process.

Additionally, Samsung is advancing its 14nm process in order to support 3.3V high voltage or flash-type embedded MRAM (eMRAM) which enables increased write speed and density. It will be a great option for applications such as micro controller units (MCUs), IoT and wearables. Samsung’s 8nm radio frequency (RF) platform is expected to expand the company’s leadership in the 5G semiconductor market from sub-6GHz to mmWave applications.

Looking ahead, in cooperation with its ecosystem partners, Samsung Foundry’s SAFE Forum will be held virtually in November 2021.

By: DocMemory
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