According to executives at Samsung's foundry division, Samsung will mass-produce 7nm EUV technology in the second half of this year, and mass-produce the 3nm GAA process in 2021.
Ryan Sanghyun Lee, vice president of Samsung's foundry business, said that Samsung has been developing GAA (Gate-All-Around) technology since 2002 and has created MBCFET (Multi-Bridge-Channel FET) by using nanochip devices. This technology can significantly enhance transistor performance. According to his news, Samsung will mass produce 3nm GAA process in 2021.
However, Samsung’s statement about when the 3nm GAA process will be mass-produced does not seem to have a unified statement. Eun Seung Jung, head of Samsung foundry business, said at the IEDM meeting last December that Samsung has completed the performance verification of 3nm process technology. The process is currently being further refined with the goal of mass production in 2020.
The 3nm GAA process, whether it is mass production in 2020 or 2021, is still a little far away. Samsung is pushing the 7nm EUV process this year. It is expected to be mass-produced in the second half of this year. Although Samsung announced the mass production of the 7nm EUV process last year, In fact, the mass production mentioned before is only a risk trial production, not a mass production. It is possible to mass production at the end of this year.
In the 7nm EUV process, TSMC also announced mass production this year, so Samsung has no advantage in terms of progress, but Samsung has its own mask inspection tool on the 7nm EUV process, while other competitors do not have similar commercial tools.
