Samsung Electronics (Samsung Electronics Co.) said on Thursday that it would commercialize its 2-nanometer transistor process technology by 2025 to compete with its larger competitor TSMC (TSMC) in chip processing.
According to media reports, Samsung said at today's wafer foundry forum that it will begin mass production of 2nm chips in 2025, start producing customer-designed 3nm chips in the first half of next year, and the second generation of 3nm chips is expected to be produced in 2023.
"We will provide a full range of manufacturing capacity, maintain a lead in the most advanced technology, and continue to improve technology at the application level." Choi sSi-young, president of Samsung wafer foundry department. He said that with the accelerated digitization of novel coronavirus's epidemic, Samsung's customers and partners will be able to provide the right technology at the right time to develop the unlimited potential of silicon applications.
Samsung said that its advanced process technology for GAA transistor structure has been fully developed and will be able to mass-produce 3nm chips for customers next year and 2nm chips in 2025. The performance of the 3nm chip produced by the GAA process is 30% higher and the power consumption is 50% lower than that of the 5nm chip.
Samsung is also continuing to improve its fin transistor (FinFET) process technology, saying that its 17nm FinFET process chip has a 39 per cent increase in performance, a 49 per cent increase in power efficiency and a 43 per cent reduction in area compared with 28nm.
It is reported that Samsung's wafer foundry forum this year will be held in the form of an online virtual meeting, and the several-day event is expected to attract more than 2000 customers and partners around the world.
The potential is to catch up with and surpass TSMC.
Samsung plans to mass-produce the first generation of 3nm chips at about the same time as TSMC plans to mass-produce these chips. Wei Zhijia, president of TSMC, said in June that the 3-nanometer process would begin mass production in the second half of 2022.
However, it is worth noting that TSMC, the market leader in chip contract manufacturing, has not yet released its mass production roadmap for 2nm chips. It also highlights Samsung's efforts to narrow the market share gap with TSMC and its ambition to catch up with TSMC in advanced chip manufacturing. If Samsung introduces more advanced process technology before TSMC, it will undoubtedly attract major global customers such as Google, Qualcomm and Apple.
Samsung, the world's second-largest contract manufacturer in terms of revenue, accounted for 14 per cent of the global contract manufacturing market for chips in the second quarter, well below TSMC's 58 per cent, according to Counterpoint research, a market research firm.
Samsung hopes to invest 133 trillion won ($116 billion) by 2030 to become the world's largest semiconductor contract manufacturer. TSMC has also said it will invest $100 billion in contract manufacturing over the next three years to consolidate its market leading position.
While Samsung and TSMC are engaged in a fierce battle, the US technology giant Intel (Intel Corp.) is also entering the field of chip contract manufacturing. In March, Intel announced a multibillion-dollar investment in the chip business and said it aimed to produce 1.8 nanometers of chips by 2024. However, industry observers say that goal may be out of reach.
At the same time, some electric car makers, such as Tesla, and technology companies, such as Apple, have also said they will produce their own car chips to reduce their dependence on chipmakers.
According to the semiconductor market research company IC Insights, the global chip contract manufacturing market will grow from US $107.2 billion this year to US $151.2 billion by 2025.
