On Thursday, Samsung said it has begun mass production of chips using a 3 nanometer (nm) process node, its most advanced technology for contract chip manufacturing.
The Korean tech giant says its 3nm process, compared to its 5nm process, 45% reduction in power usage and 23% improvement in efficiency with 16% reduction in surface area.
Samsung’s 3nm process node uses a full-gate transistor architecture (GAA), which the company calls a Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MBCFET), which packs wider channels in the gates for current to flow through the copper. voltage drop compared to the previous FinFET transistor architecture.
The channels are completely surrounded by gates, as the GAA name suggests, and using all four sides of the channels allows more current to pass through the gates than a FinFET, which uses only three edges.
The Korean tech giant also touts that its 3nm process node offers a flexible design that allows it to adjust the channel width to best meet customer needs. Samsung says a next-generation 3nm process node is also in the works with improved power usage, performance, and surface area.
Samsung says chips are currently being manufactured through the first 3nm process node for low-power, high-performance computing applications, while it plans to expand adoption of the node to mobile processors. motion. The Korean tech giant did not mention which customers it is currently mass producing 3nm chips for.
Samsung is the world’s largest memory chip maker and the second largest contract chipmaker. It is competing with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which has the world’s largest foundry, which is preparing to start mass production using its own 3nm process node, to commercialize more advanced process nodes.
The key to the pair’s latest 3nm competition is to win more orders from other major customers, such as Qualcomm for its flagship smartphone-oriented mobile processor of the year. next.
Last month, Samsung announced that it plans to spend $355 billion over the next 5 years about what it calls strategic businesses, including semiconductors. Last year, the company announced that it will spend 17 billion dollars to build a new chip factory in Taylor, Texas.
