Until now, the "horizons of planning" of most semiconductor manufacturers rested on the technological limit of 5 nm, and only the bravest market participants were claiming that they could master the production of more "thin" technical processes. As explained by the EE Times website, yesterday at a profile event recently received structural independence, Samsung Foundry division shared its production plans for the coming years.
Let's start with the fact that lithographic technologies using "ultra-high ultraviolet radiation" (EUV) in mass production Samsung will begin to be introduced next year, within the 7-nm technology category LPP, for components of mobile devices and other products with low power consumption. This year will be mastered 8-nm technical process of LPP category, but it will be satisfied with the available lithographic technologies. In 2019, Samsung will expand the LPP process technology to 6-nm and 5-nm variants, respectively.
In 2020, the South Korean company expects to begin an experimental production of products using 4-nm process technology in combination with transistor structures MBCFET (multi-bridge channel FET), which are evolution successors to FinFET and a special case of GAAFET (gate-all-around FET).
To bring EUV-production to adequate economic indicators, Samsung should produce 1,500 silicon wafers of the appropriate type per day. Already, conditions have been created to produce more than 1000 silicon wafers a day. Representatives of the company are convinced that by next year it will be possible to reach target indicators.
Samsung believes that the 10-nm process technology will have a long enough and productive conveyor life, although some competitors do not share this point of view. In the FD-SOI segment, the company intends to move from 28nm technology to 18nm by 2019. The new version of this process technology will allow to increase performance by 20%, and to reduce power consumption by 40%.