A news agency in Korea is reporting Samsung is about to make a major announcement. The world’s second-largest silicon foundry will reportedly enter mass production of its 3nm process next week. In doing so, Samsung becomes the first global foundry to reach this milestone in advanced node production. It notably beats its main rival TSMC to the punch, as the Taiwanese powerhouse isn’t expected to ramp 3nm until later this year. Intel will reach 3nm sometime in 2023 with its Intel 3 process.
The move by Samsung marks its transition from FinFet to Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors. It’s the first major foundry to make the switch. The company says it will allow for a 45 percent reduction in chip area compared with FinFet. It will also allow for 30 percent more performance and will require 50 percent less power. Samsung has been developing its 3nm process for some time now and even showed it to President Biden recently. However, reports indicated it was suffering from poor yields. This is expected when developing a new process node. Still, it was reported it was only getting between 10 and 20 percent yields at 3nm previously. If it’s moving into mass production, also called high volume manufacturing (HVM), it has probably made strides on this front.
The transition from FinFET to GAA transistors is just over the horizon. (Image: Samsung)
Samsung first revealed its 3nm plans way back in…
