Samsung is planning to expand the “4 nm production”, which has been plagued by major problems up to now. The manufacturer has no alternative, especially when it comes to larger quantities and delivery quantities, because the first gate-all-around process is still in its infancy – with unknown yield and production volume.
Up to 20,000 more wafers per month
According to the Korean media, production capacity is to be increased by 15,000 to 20,000 wafers per month by the fourth quarter of this year. Together with an increased yield (yield), production goals are to be achieved that should have been achieved long ago.
The yield rate has risen
For the yield rate, 60 percent is currently traded unofficially, six out of ten chips manufactured in the production process meet the specifications and can be used. That's still not really good, but a lot more than the figures of around 35 percent mentioned a few months ago.
Samsung's GAA process has to prove itself first
Samsung was recently present in the media with its first own process based on a new design: 3 nm with Gate All Around (GAA). The benefits are very large on paper, but the announcements remain vague and the initial delivery quantities are quite small.
Whether the promised advantages really correspond to the facts in the end will only be revealed by chips that have been finally delivered and analyzed independently. Samsung also explained itself that it would not be able to serve all markets with GAA at once, and the 4 nm solutions based on classic FinFETs in particular will probably be granted a few more years. Because the first and so problematic process 4LPE is supposed to be followed by an improved 4LPP.
The FinFET process will become apparent along with 3GAE and later improved 3GAP form the bridge to the real second generation with Gate All Around. The process, already known as 2GAP (2nm Gate-All-Around Plus) at Samsung, is targeted for 2025 and could result in a head-to-head battle with TSMC and Intel, all of which have a fairly similar timeframe for Gate All Around and those in marketing Aim at the designation mentioned “2 nm”. It is currently not possible to predict who will ultimately come out on top, because each of the three manufacturers has its own small or larger problems.