| ▲ Sravan Kudojala, a researcher at TechInside, confirmed through a conference call from Applied Materials (AMAT) on the 20th that Samsung Electronics will mass-produce 3-nano semiconductors using the gate-all-around (GAA) process from 2024. said. |
[비즈니스포스트] It is expected that Samsung Electronics will start mass-producing 3-nano semiconductors using the gate-all-around (GAA) process from 2024.
Sravan Kudozala, a researcher at TechInsight, a semiconductor market research institute, said on Twitter on the 20th, “Applied Materials (AMAT), an American semiconductor equipment company, suggested that Samsung Electronics will mass-produce 3-nm semiconductors from 2024.” “This refutes some speculation that chips for Android will still be on 4nm in 2024.”
GAA is a technology that allows channels and gates to contact each other on four sides, and is currently the only commercialized technology by Samsung Electronics.
Gate control is more strengthened than the existing ‘FinFET’ method, where the channel and gate contact surfaces are limited to three surfaces, so not only performance is improved while consuming less power, but also the leakage current problem can be solved.
Applied Materials (AMAT) is a semiconductor equipment company that supplies GAA chip manufacturing equipment and conductor etching solutions to Samsung Electronics.
Applied Materials said in a conference call announcing its results for the second quarter (February-April) on the 19th, “As semiconductor equipment customers move to mass production of GAA, shipments of Applied Materials’ GAA-related equipment will also begin to soar.” “For every 100,000 GAA wafers used, we will be able to enjoy an increase in sales of $1 billion,” he said.
“The transition from FinFET to GAA will increase our transistor market share by 5 percentage points,” Applied Materials added.
This suggests that Samsung Electronics will mass-produce second-generation 3-nano semiconductors using the GAA process from 2024.
Companies that will utilize Samsung Electronics’ second-generation 3-nano process on a large scale are not yet known.
However, if you look for places where cutting-edge semiconductors can be used on a large scale, it is highly likely that the customers are those that design processors (APs) for Android smartphones, such as Samsung Electronics’ System LSI Division and Qualcomm.
Therefore, it is analyzed that from 2024, Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S series is more likely to be equipped with a mobile processor (AP) manufactured with a 3-nano process.
Apple is expected to utilize TSMC’s 3-nano process from the iPhone 15 Pro series to be released in the second half of this year. However, TSMC’s 3-nano process is the existing FinFET method, not the GAA method.
Samsung Electronics’ 3-nano foundry yield (ratio of good products) has never been disclosed, but it is estimated that it is stabilizing to some extent.
“Teradin, which manufactures semiconductor inspection equipment, also confirmed that 3-nano semiconductors for Android will be released from 2024,” said Kudozala Researcher. “Samsung Electronics is currently the only foundry company capable of mass-producing GAA.” Reporter Byunghyun Na
