The World’s First 3nm Memory Chip: Samsung To Start Mass Production From This 30th June

Highlights

• Samsung has prepped up and is ready to begin the mass production of 3nm memory chips starting this June 30.
• 3nm chip would foster a 30% performance increase, a 50% energy consumption reduction, and up to 80% higher transistor density.
• Samsung could delay the fabrication process turned out to be baseless rumors, according to insider sources.

So developments and again developments, rumors and expected dates. This was all going around this month for the semiconductor industry. 

But finally, today, several reliable sources informed the media that Samsung has finally prepped up and is ready to begin the mass production of 3nm memory chips starting this June 30.

Samsung is going to use an advanced GAAFET (gate-all-around field-effect transistor) architecture compared to its archrival TSMC’s FinFET (fin field-effect transistor) for the fabrication method. 

This, when completed, would foster a 30% performance increase, a 50% energy consumption reduction, and up to 80% higher transistor density, according to Samsung.

If this goes according to schedules, then Samsung will become the first manufacturer of semiconductors to start using gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAAFET) architecture with its impending 3 nm fabrication process. 

Samsung announced in April this year that it will work on 2 nm by 2025. Before this, Samsung also informed in April that it would start to work on the 3nm chips 3GAE (3 nm-class gate-all-around early) fabrication process, starting in mid-2022.

It came to light during the 10 days US president’s visit to S.Korea in Samsung’s electronic plant on May 20, and it’s believed that Samsung presented the world’s first GAA-based 3-nano chip prototype.

According to Taiwanese market researcher TrendForce, Samsung has made $5.3 billion in foundry revenue in Q1 March, which is less than 3.9 percent from the previous three months, while market share plummeted from 18.3 percent to 16.3 percent in this time.

Furthermore, this year, the Samsung group ranked 22nd position from 15th compared to last year, making it drop down 7 steps on the global market cap in comparison to last year’s position with a market value of $342 billion as of March. 

However, amid this, rumors were floating that Samsung Electronics could halt the process because of expected earnings generated over a particular period and production problems regarding raw materials availability, i.e., yield issues due to the current ongoing war and semiconductor production crisis due to the pandemic.

Amid these up & downs, there were predictions that things weren’t going well for the Korean conglomerate, but its advancement in technology and resolution it projected could still secure it a leading position against the rivals in this business, namely USA’s Intel & Taiwanese TSMC. 

TSMC is expected to mass-produce the first-gen 3nm chips (N3) for its customers in early 2023 & 2nm by 2025. TSMC informed at TSMC Technology Symposium 2022.

Although it was believed that Samsung could delay this process until the latter end of this year, predictably in Q3 2022, however, these just turned out to be baseless rumors, according to insider sources.

Samsung has already devised a roadmap for its investment in texas for the foundry factory. A $17 billion Texas microprocessing chip plant. Also to note, recently, Samsung announced a $356 billion investment pledge for the chip, bio, and IT sector over the next five years, of which 80 percent will go to facility and R&D investment. This seems to impact the tech industry’s future. 

It’s just about a little time. According to the sources, Samsung Electronics is set to officially announce volume production of GAA-based 3-nm semiconductors on June 30.

Readers can also learn about the TSMC vs. Samsung rivalry & more about the chip fabrication process from the below links.