Samsung Electronics will devlop foundry capacity at traditional nodes

According to the latest report, Samsung Electronics will start expanding its foundry capabilities for traditional nodes this year. The move is aimed at attracting new customers and improving profit margins by increasing the capacity of mature processes for projects such as CMOS image sensors (CIS).

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics is planning to start mass production of advanced chips on its sub-3nm manufacturing process in the first half of this year.

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The company said in its 2021 business report that it is considering expanding capacity at its mature nodes in the medium to long term as demand is expected to remain strong. The company added that it is taking steps to improve the competitiveness of its products and is considering investing in additional new fabs.

Moreover, this marks the first time Samsung Electronics has proposed the possibility of expanding production capacity at traditional nodes. Samsung Electronics has been expanding its investments in the semiconductor field in recent years. 

The company is expected to increase investment this year. In 2021, Samsung Electronics’ facility investment reached an all-time high of KRW 48.22 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 25.3%.

Furthermore, Samsung Electronics will also continue to introduce derivative process technologies to improve performance and cost competitiveness by improving older processes.

In October 2021, the company announced that it would improve production efficiency by applying the 17nm process based on the new Fin Field Effect Transistor (FinFET) to the production of image sensors and mobile display driver ICs (DDIs), which are already available today.

So far, Samsung Electronics has been focusing on developing advanced processes rather than traditional ones. But as the traditional process market has grown to an unprecedented level due to a boom in the semiconductor industry and a global core shortage, analysts say Samsung Electronics is actively responding to the expansion in demand by expanding related investments.

In the case of TSMC, the share of legacy nodes (referring to 16nm or above processes) will account for 50% of its revenue in 2021. In the field of advanced 10nm or lower processes, Samsung accounts for about 40% of the global market. But its share in the mature process segment is much smaller.

Samsung Electronics plans to secure as many as 300 foundry customers by 2026 and triple production from 2017 levels.

Samsung has built the world’s first 3nm process using gate-around (GAA) technology and expects to launch chips on this process in the first half of 2022, while a 2nm process based on third-generation GAA technology will be available in 2025 Start mass production.

Besides, Samsung Electronics plans to secure as many as 300 foundry customers by 2026 and triple production from 2017 levels. Samsung has built the world’s first 3nm process using gate-around (GAA) technology and expects to launch chips on this process in the first half of 2022, while a 2nm process based on third-generation GAA technology will be available in 2025.

(via)