Samsung plans to triple its wafer capacity by 2026
The lack of global semiconductor production capacity has not been big news in the past year, and the increasing demand has further exacerbated the supply shortage. Many wafer manufacturers have chosen to expand their production capacity, such as building new wafer fabs to meet the needs of the market. Samsung announced this year that it will invest $151.5 billion in the construction of wafer fabs in the next ten years.
Image: Samsung
According to a report from TomsHardware, Samsung executives recently stated at the meeting that they plan to greatly increase production capacity through the expansion of the original fab and the new fab. At present, Samsung has built a brand-new fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, and it may do the same in Texas, USA. It takes four years to triple its production capacity, and Samsung looks very optimistic about the future. Samsung is the second-largest foundry in the world, second only to TSMC (TSMC), and currently has more than 100 customers
In addition to production capacity, Samsung is also advancing process research and development. Samsung will introduce a new GAAFET all-around gate transistor process at the 3nm process node. The first-generation 3nm process has been postponed to mass production in the first half of 2022, while the second-generation 3nm process will be mass-produced in 2023. Samsung said that compared with the original 5nm process, the first 3nm GAA process node using the MBCFET process reduces the chip area by 35%, improves performance by 30%, or reduces power consumption by 50%. In addition, Samsung has not given up on the improvement of existing processes, and previously introduced 17LPV processes for CIS, DDI, and MCU. On the basis of the 28nm process, the FinFET process technology used in the 14nm process is added to enjoy new technical advantages at a relatively low cost.
