At the European edition of this year's Foundry Forum, Samsung once again reinforced the goals it announced this week. As a contract manufacturer, the company has big plans, but not only wants to score in high-end, but also in the areas of automotive and RF solutions and challenge TSMC.
Every RAM technology at a glance
ComputerBase had already written a first report on the next expansion steps for RAM and graphics memory. But the roadmap presented by Samsung goes much further. In terms of new technologies and the year of their introduction, they are often way off the mark, as HBM in particular has always proven in the past. Seeing HBM4 for the year 2026 here and today should not be set in stone.
But the roadmap shows much more. Although she only names GDDR7, the gap until the end of the decade allows for further new developments such as GDDR7+ or even GDDR8. This is not only accompanied by constantly improved and updated production based on EUV technology, but also the capacity of the memory chips will continue to grow. 48 Gbit chips should be available from 2028 and thus presumably for the more widespread introduction of DDR6 and LPDDR6. The memory speed in this area is predictably developing and should also officially exceed 10,000 MT/s from 2027/2028 – this mark was broken for the first time with heavily overclocked DDR5 memory in the spring of this year.
The V-NAND roadmap is more of a history, but also includes the next big step with V9, which should be available from 2024. By 2030, Samsung wants to stack more than 1,000 layers on top of each other. However, it remains to be seen whether this long-term goal will be achievable – the manufacturer spoke about this for the first time a year ago.
Manufacturing technology, packaging and more
Samsung has recently been in the spotlight because it was the first manufacturer to announce the start of series production with new transistors: Gate-All-Around (GAA). Because with further shrinking structures since the introduction of the FinFET, the short-channel effect for the performance of the transistor has again become relevant. Although the fin structure ensures stable conditions in the channel in production sizes down to 5 nm, a new FET technology is required from around 3 nm. Further improvement in transistor performance comes from enclosing the last remaining side, the bottom of the channel, with oxide and gate contact as well. This creates a Gate All Around FET or GAAFET.
But the process wasn't and still isn't easy, and Samsung had to overcome a number of hurdles. The previous yield also remains a great unknown, and who will even receive the first chips based on this technology level. However, Samsung's presentation of the successes in the manufacturing stages has taste: There is a not inconsiderable difference between “Worlds First” and “Foundry First”.
Samsung's achievements in foundry business (Image: Samsung)Speaking of yield: The 4 nm production at Samsung has recently been in the spotlight, as the yield is said to be or was massively below expectations. SF4, as Samsung calls this series, is in massive development, with SF4 and SF4P, as steps two and three in this series are called, the yield rate should soon be at the level of SF5E. SF4X as an HPC solution follows last, with SF4A there is also an automotive process. With regard to the SF4E entry process, Samsung only indicated that the yield was improving, without giving specific figures. The bottom line was that it was rather below average and maybe even still is.
Foundry plans to 2027 ( Image: Samsung via Twitter)Factory plans and the Europe question
Samsung is making modest progress with its expansion plans. There are new factory buildings, but they are mainly carried out at already known locations. In South Korea, the mega campus in Pyeongtaek (PT) in particular is growing. New extensions are to be put into operation there constantly and thus contribute to Samsung being able to significantly expand its capacity for state-of-the-art technologies in the coming years.
Samsung Foundry locations in South Korea (Image: Samsung)The new factory in the USA should also help from 2024, the first really new location in many years. Here, too, Samsung sought to be close to an existing factory, which facilitated the transfer of personnel and technology or even wafer transport.
US Samsung Foundry Locations (Image: Samsung)When Samsung was asked what the situation was with a factory in Europe, the company replied diplomatically that there were currently no plans for one. You don't say no across the board to other regions outside of Korea or the USA, but you do combine the advantages of short distances and existing infrastructure that have already been mentioned. However, keep an eye on all potential possibilities in the future.
In Europe, according to their own statements, they are still in the early stages and are therefore still a very young foundry. The focus here is therefore first of all on extended support for customers, above all Samsung is looking at the automotive segment.
ComputerBase was invited to the Foundry Forum by Samsung and has the Information partly received in advance and under NDA as well as in the context of a separate press briefing. The publication of the presentations was not permitted with certain exceptions.