Samsung Presents Foundry Capacity Boost Plans

Samsung unveiled plan to boost the production capacity of its foundry business and start mass production of chips using 2nm processing technology in 2025. President and head of the company’s Foundry Business Choi Si-young said Samsung will lead the most advanced technologies while taking silicon scaling a step further.

Choi said the global chip market is entering an era of uncertainty and it’s not yet clear how long this era will last. “We do expect, however, few companies to be equipped to compete in this new frontier for process scaling,“ added Choi.

Samsung is to start producing first 3nm-based chip designs in the first half of 2022. Compared with the 5nm process, the 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) node boosts performance by 30 percent, lowers power consumption 50 percent and takes up 35 percent less space, Samsung said in a statement.

Choi noted 3nm products will be produced at its fab in Pyeongtaek, Korea, which is being expanded, and at a planned fab in the US, without sharing details on the location. The second generation of 3nm chips will be manufactured in 2023. The company said its planned 2nm process, which uses GAA, multi-bridge-channel FET technology, currently is in the early stages of development.