On the 28th, Samsung Electronics announced its latest foundry technology innovations and business strategy at the 7th annual Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) 2023.

Under the “Innovation Beyond Boundaries” theme, this year’s forum delved into Samsung Foundry’s mission to address customer needs in the artificial intelligence (AI) era through advanced semiconductor technology.

“Samsung Foundry has always met customer needs by being ahead of the technology innovation curve, and today, we are confident that our gate-all-around (GAA)-based advanced node technology will be instrumental in supporting the needs of our customers using AI applications,” said Dr. Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “Ensuring the success of our customers is the most central value to our foundry services.”

At the event, Samsung announced detailed plans for the mass production of its 2nm process and performance levels.

Samsung will begin mass production of the 2nm process for mobile applications in 2025, then expand to HPC in 2026 and automotive in 2027. Samsung’s 2nm process (SF2) has shown a 12% increase in performance, a 25% increase in power efficiency, and a 5% decrease in area compared to its 3nm process (SF3).

From 2025, Samsung will begin foundry services for 8-inch gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors targeting consumer, data center, and automotive applications.

To secure the most cutting-edge technology in 6G, the 5nm Radio Frequency (RF) is also under development and will be available in the first half of 2025. Samsung’s 5nm RF process shows a 40% increase in power efficiency and a 50% decrease in area compared to the previous 14nm process.

In addition, the company will add automotive applications to its 8nm and 14nm RF, expanding beyond the mobile applications currently under mass production.

Samsung plans to begin mass production of foundry products for mobile and other applications at Pyeongtaek Line 3 in the second half of the year. Samsung is also focusing on increasing its manufacturing capacity in the United States. Construction of the new fab in Taylor is proceeding according to initial plans and is expected to finish by the end of the year, beginning operation in the second half of 2024.

Samsung will continue to expand its production base to Yongin, South Korea, to power the next generation of Samsung’s foundry services. 

To address the rapid growth in the chipset market for mobile and HPC applications, Samsung is launching the MDI Alliance in collaboration with its partner companies and significant players in memory, substrate packaging, and testing.

Samsung plans to actively respond to customer and market needs by developing customized packaging solutions tailored to the individual needs of various applications, including HPC and automotive.

Together with over a hundred partners across electronic design automation (EDA), design solution partners (DSP), outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT), cloud, and IP, Samsung is promoting mutual growth of the foundry ecosystem to power the success of customers.

Samsung has long supported more vital collaboration between partners across the foundry ecosystem, advancing the boundaries of design infrastructure from 8-inch to the latest GAA process. Samsung and its 23 EDA partners now offer over 80 design tools and collaborate with 10 OSAT partners to develop 2.5D/3D packaging design solutions.

Samsung provides product design services to various customers, from startups to industry leaders, through solid partnerships with nine DSP partners with extensive expertise in Samsung Foundry processes and nine Cloud partners.

“Through extensive collaboration with our SAFE™ partners, Samsung Foundry is helping simplify designs that are becoming even more complex amid the application of the most advanced processes and new technologies such as heterogeneous integration,” said Jong-wook Kye, Executive Vice President and Head of Design Platform Development, Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to strive for consistent growth in the Samsung Foundry ecosystem in scale and quality.”

By_BK Min, KDFN kdf@kdfnews.com

The summary of this article in Korean is as follows.

■삼성전자, '파운드리 포럼 2023' 개최..."경계를 넘어서는 혁신" 비전 밝혀

삼성전자가 27일(현지시각) 미국 실리콘밸리에서 '삼성 파운드리 포럼 2023)'을 개최하고 최첨단 파운드리 공정 서비스 확대 제공과 인공지능(AI) 시대 최첨단 반도체 한계를 극복할 다양한 비전을 선포했다. 

이날 삼성전자는 "최첨단 2나노 공정의 응용처 확대와 첨단 패키지 협의체 'MDI(Multi Die Integration) Alliance' 출범, 올해 하반기 평택 3라인 파운드리 제품 양산 등을 통해 파운드리 사업 경쟁력을 강화해 나가겠다"고 밝혔다.

삼성전자 파운드리사업부 최시영 사장은 기조연설을 통해 "많은 고객사들이 자체 제품과 서비스에 최적화된 인공지능 전용 반도체 개발에 적극 나서고 있다"며 "삼성전자는 인공지능 반도체에 가장 최적화된 GAA 트랜지스터 기술을 계속 혁신해 나가며 인공지능 기술 패러다임 변화를 주도하겠다"고 말했다.

포럼에서 삼성전자는 △다양한 고객 수요 충족을 위한 스페셜티 공정 경쟁력 지속 △고객 수요에 신속, 탄력적 대응 위한 '쉘퍼스트' 라인운영 단계별 시행 △최첨단 패키지 협의체 구축...비욘드 무어(Beyond Moore) 시대 선도 △삼성 파운드리 생태계 확대...글로벌 IP 파트너와 팹리스 총력 지원 계획을 밝혔다. 

삼성전자 파운드리사업부 계종욱 부사장은 "삼성전자는 SAFE 파트너와 협력해 최첨단 공정 및 이종 집적 기술 도입에 따라 높아지는 설계 복잡도를 최소화하고 있다"며 "이번 포럼을 계기로 SAFE 생태계의 양적, 질적 성장을 이루며 고객의 혁신과 성공을 지원하겠다"고 밝혔다.

사진=삼성전자

민병권 기자 kdf@kdfnews.com