Samsung next-gen production technology for Gate All Around could come much later than previously expected: 2023 at the earliest, for larger quantities more likely in 2024. A high-ranking engineer from Qualcomm indicated this , who are among Samsung's closest partners.
In a question and answer session for Applied Materials as to when he expected corresponding products with Gate All Around (GAA), Dr. Chidi Chidambaram from Qualcomm that it will be the year 2024, but early products could possibly appear as early as 2023. It was the logical assumption, he explained, whereby it can be assumed that Chidambaram is subject to an NDA and has to leave out exact times. Dr. Chidi Chidambaram is Qualcomm's Vice President and Head of Process Technology and Foundry, so in the end he is someone who can make such a statement with some insight into the processes.
Gate-All-Around (GAA) is basically very similar to today's common FinFET, but instead of “only” from three sides, the Gate-All-Around should – as the name suggests – completely enclose the nanowires and thus the enable a “perfect transistor”, as it were. Together with new production methods and packaging processes, the chips of the future should be created, which is why all manufacturers are striving in this direction
Samsung wanted to be a pioneer
Samsung has been planning with Gate All Around for more than four years, and according to the original plans, risk production should start this year 2021. Recently, however, there were constant doubts about these statements, as Samsung always emphasized in quarterly reports, such as at the beginning of the year, that it was still in the research and development phase. At the same time, a 4 nm process was completed at the beginning of the year, which in the end will give the company more time.
The Company completed the design of 2nd generation 5-nm and 1st generation 4-nm mobile products , proving our leading-edge process competitiveness. [..] The company will operate its lines flexibly by expanding the portion of advanced processes and will focus on developing 1st and 2nd generation 3-nm processes
Samsung at the beginning of 2021
For Samsung, serial production of 3GAE (3 nm Gate-All-Around Early) and 3GAP (3 nm Gate-All-Around Plus) would be A setback in the battle for the best foundries at the end of 2023 and 2024 respectively. Ultimately, TSMC's more cautious path should once again reveal itself as the probably better solution. The market leader from Taiwan still relies fully on classic FinFETs at 3 nm, and a change to ATMs is sought at 2 nm at the earliest. In between, however, there were rumors that an intermediate process could bridge another year with classic technology at TSMC. If Samsung's shift turns out to be true, TSMC should definitely have that time. According to the previous plan, TSMC's 2-nm production should be ready by 2023, although they also kept the topic very covered at their last technology symposium. The devil with the new technology seems to be in more details than expected.