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Samsung might skip 3nm mass production for smartphones and jump directly to 2nm. According to the Korean media, the company sees this as a winning move to challenge TSMC’s dominance in the foundry market. Research firm TrendForce recently reported that TSMC had a 56.4 percent share in the market in Q2 2023, with Samsung’s share coming in at just 11.7 percent.
Samsung considering jumping to the 2nm process amid 3nm yield struggles
The 3nm semiconductor era kicked off in 2022, with both Samsung and TSMC beginning mass production of the advanced chips. The former beat the latter to the punch in this race by a few months. However, TSMC ended up being the first to manufacture a 3nm processor for smartphones. It made Apple’s A17 chip used in the newly launched iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
It is currently the only 3nm smartphone chip available commercially. Samsung’s upcoming Exynos 2400 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will both be 4nm solutions. Neither company is upgrading to 3nm, with MediaTek appearing to be the only one following Apple. Samsung and TSMC’s yield issues might be to blame for this. Both foundries are reportedly struggling to surpass a 3nm yield rate of 60 percent.
A poor yield means smaller production capacity, as a large portion of manufactured chips are defective or don’t meet the required specifications. It’s been more than a year since Samsung started manufacturing 3nm chips (for non-smartphone applications) but the company is still struggling to improve yield. The situation is no better at TSMC, despite it making Apple’s new chip on a 3nm process.
Industry experts believe these yield issues may extend the 3nm era as both companies still have several derivative 3nm processes to work on. However, Samsung might have something else in mind. While it will continue to work on improving the 3nm yield, the company doesn’t want to be caught up with it. The Korean behemoth may move to the 2nm process in 2025 regardless of where its 3nm technology stands at the time.
2nm chips could be a reality in 2025
Samsung has long planned to start producing 2nm chips in 2025. However, there have been fears that the yield issues with 3nm solutions may delay the plan. It appears that won’t be the case. The Korean firm is determined to make 2nm chips a reality in a couple of years.
TSMC also plans to move to the 2nm process in 2025. However, Samsung’s experience with the GAA transistor architecture might give it a competitive edge against TSMC. The Korean firm first applied the GAA technology to its 3nm chips, while TSMC has stuck with the older FinFet transistor architecture. It will upgrade to GAA with the 2nm solutions in 2025, but Samsung will have the “first mover” advantage. It remains to be seen whether Samsung can make this advantage count and increase its foundry market share.
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