Samsung has procured a new 3nm order to manufacture a server-grade processor
In late June 2022, Samsung announced the commencement of 3nm chip production at its Hwaseong plant in South Korea, utilizing the novel Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture. However, in its initial stages of mass production, the yield rates of Samsung’s 3nm GAA process were suboptimal, resulting in a scarcity of orders. The limited orders they did secure were predominantly for simpler chips used in domains like cryptocurrency.
According to a press release by South Korean semiconductor design firm ADTechnology, Samsung has procured a new 3nm order to manufacture a server-grade processor for an overseas company. This processor is not only fabricated using the 3nm GAA process but also incorporates 2.5D system-level packaging, combining it with HBM-type memory to encapsulate multiple chips together. ADTechnology asserts that this 3nm project will rank among the semiconductor industry’s most monumental products.
Both ADTechnology and Samsung have remained reticent about the client’s identity, with speculations suggesting it’s an American company. All that’s known is that it’s destined for data centers and, given its integration with HBM-type memory, it’s likely oriented towards artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Unlike chips for cryptocurrency, the manufacturing complexity of this 3nm order is significantly elevated.
As introduced by Samsung at industry seminars this year, the current first-generation 3nm process is dubbed SF3E (3GAE). The forthcoming year will witness the introduction of a second-generation 3nm process technology named SF3 (3GAP), employing the “Second-generation Multi-Bridge Channel Field-Effect Transistor (MBCFET)”. This will further optimize the existing SF3E. Subsequent iterations will see performance-enhanced SF3P (3GAP+), making it more apt for crafting high-performance chips.
