Samsung semiconductor manufacturing technology leaked
Samsung is one of the very few semiconductor manufacturers in the world that masters advanced manufacturing processes, and its foundry scale is second only to TSMC. Samsung plans to mass-produce the first-generation 3nm process in the first half of 2022 and the second-generation 3nm process in 2023. However, starting from the 7nm process node, Samsung has not been smooth in process development and production. In the past two years, the chips produced by the 5nm and 4nm processes have had major problems in terms of performance and yield, which eventually led Samsung Electronics management to decide to investigate related issues.
Image: Samsung
The problems in Samsung’s internal management don’t stop there. According to Korea Joongang Daily reports, employees at the Samsung wafer foundry may have photographed confidential information about chip manufacturing technology. It is understood that while working from home, the employee used a smartphone to take a computer screen interface showing confidential information. Although the number of photos is small, it may involve hundreds of trade secrets, including the manufacturing technology of 5nm and 3nm processes.
Samsung issued a statement to the media:
“The person is under investigation for violating information protection rules. But it is not yet known the type of information compromised and whether the person handed it to a third party.”
In addition, Samsung was also attacked by a hacker group some time ago. Part of the source code that was subsequently disclosed included Qualcomm’s confidential source code, the source code of Samsung’s activation server, technology for authorizing and verifying Samsung accounts, and algorithms for biometric unlocking operations. Yield problems in chip production, coupled with the theft of confidential information, are likely to cause tensions between Samsung and Qualcomm.
