Samsung Electronics Co unveiled a number of forthcoming advancements to its technology aimed at attracting makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
Although, Samsung is the world’s No. 1 memorychip maker, it has been trying to catch up with rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the foundry market, where companies manufacture customer-designed chips.
Samsung’s share in the foundry market slid to 11 percent in the first quarter of this year from 11.3 percent in the previous quarter, while TSMC’s share climbed to 61.7 percent from 61.2 percent during the same period, according to Taipei-based research house TrendForce Corp (集邦科技).
Photo: AFP
Samsung on Wednesday announced several new types of production technology and laid out its chipmaking road map and outlined its vision for the AI era at its annual foundry forum in San Jose, California.
The advanced process introduced by Samsung uses so-called backside power delivery network technology, which places power rails on the backside of a silicon wafer. Such technology enhances power, performance and area, while significantly reducing the drop in voltage, compared with its first-generation 2-nanometer process, the company said.
The South Korean chipmaker also said that its ability to offer logic, memory and advanced packaging would help it make rapid progress in winning outsourced semiconductor manufacturing orders for AI-related chips.
The company predicted that its AI-related customer list would expand five-fold and revenue would increase by nine times over current levels by 2028.
Samsung executives declined to comment on the status of the company’s attempts to supply the latest advanced memory chips to Nvidia Corp, which produces AI accelerators that are a must-have for all large technology companies.
They also did not respond to reports that it has not yet been able to achieve qualification of such chips at the US company.
The company touted its gate-all-around (GAA) technology, which is key for AI products.
Samsung said it plans to mass produce its second-generation 3-nanometer process in the second half of this year and deliver GAA on its upcoming 2-nanometer process.
In 2022, the company became the first in the industry to begin GAA-based 3-nanometer mass production.
The chipmaker affirmed that its preparations for 1.4-nanometer are progressing smoothly, with performance and yield targets on track for mass production in 2027.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
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