On July 7, according to foreign media reports, Samsung Electronics announced on its official website on June 30 that they used a 3nm process technology with a full-surround gate transistor architecture, and had begun preliminary production of chips on the same day, prior to TSMC using a 3nm process. wafer.
Samsung Electronics
It has been a week since Samsung Electronics announced the initial production. In the report, foreign media also gave more information on their 3nm process technology.
The latest reports from foreign media show that the first customer of Samsung Electronics’ 3nm process technology will be a domestic application-specific integrated circuit application company, but they did not disclose the specific name of the company.
The foreign media also mentioned in the report that Qualcomm, the largest customer of Samsung Electronics’ foundry, has also booked the production capacity of the 3nm process. According to the sources, Qualcomm can ask Samsung to use this process to make chips for them at any time, according to the agreement reached by the two companies.
Different from the fin field effect transistor (FinFET) structure used in 7nm, 5nm and other processes, Samsung Electronics’ 3nm process technology is the first to adopt a full-surround gate transistor structure. Samsung Electronics stated on its official website that compared with the 5nm process, the chips manufactured by their first-generation 3nm process technology have reduced power consumption by 45%, performance increased by 23%, and chip area reduced by 16%.
Samsung Electronics’ competitor TSMC in the foundry field is also promoting the mass production of the 3nm process. They plan to mass production in the second half of this year. Their 3nm process continues to use the fin field effect transistor architecture.