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Catch up with TSMC! Samsung plans to mass produce 3nm in 2022.

発行済み :2020/11/18 2:32:59

クリック数:2103

According to Bloomberg News, Samsung Electronics is investing US$116 billion in the next-generation chip business, including foundry, betting that it can eventually narrow the gap with TSMC in two years.


The South Korean giant will mass-produce 3nm chips in 2022, an executive from its foundry department told attendees at an invitation-only event last month. This target has not been announced before, which means that it is expected to start producing the most advanced semiconductors in the industry. Samsung has already developed initial design tools with major partners, Park Jiehong, executive vice president of foundry design platform development, told the conference delegates.

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If Samsung succeeds, this will be a breakthrough. Its ambitions will become the choice of chip manufacturers, just like Apple and AMD now rely on TSMC. Samsung is the first manufacturer of Apple's I-series iPhone processors. Samsung’s current head is Jay Y. Lee. He hopes that Samsung will establish a technological leadership in advanced fields such as chip manufacturing and 5G networks to promote its next phase of growth. Samsung is accelerating its competition with iPhone chip maker TSMC.


"In order to actively respond to market trends and reduce the design barriers for on-chip development of competing systems, we will continue to innovate our cutting-edge process portfolio, and at the same time strengthen Samsung's foundry ecosystem through close cooperation with partners," Samsung related personnel Say.


Samsung’s goal is the same as TSMC’s goal of providing mass production of 3nm chips in the second half of 2022. But Korean companies also hope to do better by adopting "GAAFET" technology. Some people think that this technology has changed the rules of the game. It can more accurately control cross-channel current, reduce chip area and reduce power consumption. TSMC chose a more mature FinFET architecture for its 3nm process.


Rino Choi, a professor of materials science and engineering at Inha University, said: "Samsung is catching up with TSMC very fast. It seeks to gain an advantage over competitors by adopting new technologies for the first time. In the initial stage, if the output of advanced nodes cannot be increased quickly, it may lose money.


Samsung is already the world's largest manufacturer of computer memory and monitors, hoping to have a larger share of the $250 billion generation industry and logic chip industry. In 2019, TSMC controlled more than half of the contract chip manufacturing market, while Samsung only had 18%.


Samsung started production at its first EUV-based dedicated plant in the southern city of Hwaseong this year, and the second plant is in Pyeongtaek, with mass production planned for the second half of 2021. In a recent earnings call, Shawn Han, senior vice president of the semiconductor business, said that the growth rate of its foundry business is expected to greatly exceed the average market growth rate, and the market may reach single-digit highs. SK Securities analyst Kim Young-so said that the GAA technology selected by Samsung is expected to be used by TSMC in the 2nm process in 2024, and it is also possible to advance the time to the second half of 2023.


"Technically speaking, Samsung can reverse the situation before TSMC starts 2nm production in 2023," Jin said. "There will be overflow orders when producing application processor chips and edge computing devices. The key to expanding market share is how much Samsung can protect. One EUV machine.


Samsung officials believe that Samsung has a competitive advantage in manufacturing chips and their terminal devices (such as Galaxy smartphones). It can foresee and meet the engineering requirements of its customers. Samsung believes that its other trump card is the ability to pack memory and logic chips into a single module, thereby increasing power consumption and space efficiency. But some companies may be cautious about outsourcing production to direct competitors. TSMC executives have stressed from time to time that the company does not compete with any customers, which is clearly aimed at Samsung.


Samsung started production at its first EUV-based dedicated plant in the southern city of Hwaseong this year, and the second plant is in Pyeongtaek, with mass production planned for the second half of 2021. In a recent earnings call, Shawn Han, senior vice president of the semiconductor business, said that the growth rate of its foundry business is expected to greatly exceed the average market growth rate, and the market may reach single-digit highs. SK Securities analyst Kim Young-so said that the GAA technology selected by Samsung is expected to be used by TSMC in the 2nm process in 2024, and it is also possible to advance the time to the second half of 2023.


"Technically speaking, Samsung can reverse the situation before TSMC starts 2nm production in 2023," Jin said. "There will be overflow orders when producing application processor chips and edge computing devices. The key to expanding market share is how much Samsung can protect. One EUV machine.


Samsung officials believe that Samsung has a competitive advantage in manufacturing chips and their terminal devices (such as Galaxy smartphones). It can foresee and meet the engineering requirements of its customers. Samsung believes that its other trump card is the ability to pack memory and logic chips into a single module, thereby increasing power consumption and space efficiency. But some companies may be cautious about outsourcing production to direct competitors. TSMC executives have stressed from time to time that the company does not compete with any customers, which is clearly aimed at Samsung.


Cost 560 million! MediaTek acquires Intel Enpirion power management chip


On November 17th, MediaTek announced that it will spend approximately US$85 million (approximately RMB 560 million) to acquire Intel’s Enpirion power management chip product line-related assets through its subsidiary Richtek. MediaTek did not disclose the timetable for the transaction, but said that after all relevant documents and legal procedures have been approved, the transaction is expected to be completed before the end of this year.


Through this acquisition, MediaTek plans to expand its product line to provide integrated high-frequency and high-efficiency power solutions for FPGA, SoC, CPU, and ASIC, targeting enterprise-level system applications. MediaTek said that this move will expand the company's operating scale and enhance operating performance and competitiveness.


All along, MediaTek has been actively developing its server ASIC business. It is reported that the company has also obtained an order from Google to integrate the Intel Enpirion product line. Through the server layout, MediaTek can provide a more complete solution, especially in 5G base stations.


The Intel Enpirion power solution is a high-frequency, high-efficiency power management device, suitable for FPGA, SoC, CPU, ASIC and other semiconductor devices.


In July of this year, ADI announced the acquisition of Maxim, and is expected to increase its share of the global analog IC market to approximately 14%, while Texas Instruments is approximately 33%. Through this acquisition, it remains to be seen whether MediaTek can break the dominance of these two giants.