Samsung beats TSMC, begins mass production of 3nm chips – Times of India

Samsung Electronics on Thursday announced that it has started the mass production of 3nm semiconductor chips at its fabrication plant in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, becoming the first semiconductor manufacturer to make chips on the 3nm process node. And this time, the chip maker is using GAA (Gate All Around) transistor architecture instead of FinFET, which promises better power efficiency.
The 3nm chips from Samsung use the Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MBCFET), Samsung’s GAA technology. The company says the new architecture brings a major performance improvement compared to the FinFET. Samsung’s 3nm chips improve power efficiency by reducing the supply voltage level while increasing the drive current capability. Further, the new 3nm chips will use the nanosheet transistors for high performance and low power consumption applications and will be extended to mobile processors.
“Samsung has grown rapidly as we continue to demonstrate leadership in applying next-generation technologies to manufacturing, such as foundry industry’s first High-K Metal Gate, FinFET, as well as EUV. We seek to continue this leadership with the world’s first 3nm process with the MBCFET,” said Dr Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics.
He further added, “We will continue active innovation in competitive technology development and build processes that help expedite achieving maturity of technology.”
The South Korean electronics giant claims its 3nm chips are 45 per cent more power-efficient than the chips fabbed on a 5nm process node. Further, the 3nm chips offer a 23 per cent improvement in performance while having a 16 per cent smaller surface area than 5nm chips.
Samsung has also started the development of the second-generation 3nm process node, and it expects next-generation 3nm chips to offer a 50 per cent improvement in power consumption and a 30 per cent boost in performance while reducing the surface area by 35 per cent.
Samsung, for now, has beaten TSMC in bringing out the first 3nm chip. However, TSMC, which is Samsung’s biggest competitor in the silicon manufacturing segment, is also expected to begin soon manufacturing 3nm chips. Now, it is left to see which one of them would be able to bring 3nm chips to consumer devices first.