Recently, the market has reported that Samsung and Hynix have experienced yield problems in the 18nm process. The product has been used in the high-end server products and customer requested RMA, including the customer from United States and mainland China and these customers have requested temporary suspension of shipments. It is reported that affected customers include Amazon, Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei. It is estimated that it will take at least 1 to 2 months to improve the yield problem. Originally, the price of DRAM in the third quarter expected to rise, now that the supply of high-end DRAM is goes short, the market price change in the second half of the year seems to be very dramatic.
Relevant supply chain industry experts stated that the Samsung 18nm process is not the first time that quality concerns have been reported. The design has been revised twice before. Originally, the industry thought that the third improvement will be OK, but the requirements for high-end server products used in data centers are relatively high, environmental request is also more strict, at the same time that the DRAM processes is in continuous miniaturization, the product yields that meet the specifications are more difficult to control stably. In addition, this does not mean that there is a problem with all 18nm processes. It is only a problem with high-standard server DRAM products. Non-compliant DRAM products can still be used for other consumer applications such as PCs or notebooks. According to past experience, Samsung and Hynix should be able to improve the yield rate in about 1 to 2 months. In addition, Samsung's 20nm process is currently in stable production, sufficient to meet the DRAM demand in the server market, and it is expected that this will not result in the market shortage.
The industry pointed out that due to the impact of entering the traditional peak season in the second half of the year, previous manufacturers have already signaled a rise in mobile and server DRAM prices in the third quarter. Now that the 18nm process suffers from yield problems, whether the price increase in the second half will increase will remain to be seen. In addition, after the Korean manufacturers been requested by customer for shipment suspension, it bring new opportunities to Micron and Nanya Technology, which is actively trying to get more market share in the server market. Changes in the market share will be worthy of attention.
