For wafer foundries, advanced processes below 7nm (5nm, 4nm or even 3nm) show a sharp increase in R&D costs while yield rates decrease due to the increase in the difficulty of process improvement, the increase in the number of transistors, and the increase in production line costs.
According to The Elec, the yield rate of the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chip is currently only 35%, while the Exynos 2200 yield rate is even lower. It is said that the reason why Snapdragon chips have a higher yield rate is because Qualcomm has executives and technicians stationed in Samsung wafer foundries and constantly revised production in exchange. In contrast, TSMC's yield rate on the N4 process exceeds 70%, even if it does not consider performance and energy efficiency issues, it is enough to make Qualcomm excited; so it has recently been reported that Qualcomm is expected to launch the news that TSMC will produce Snapdragon 8 Gen1 Plus chips in the second half of the year, which is more logical.
Previously, Samsung said that it will introduce a new GAAFET full surround gate transistor process at the 3nm process node, and plans to mass-produce the first-generation 3nm process in the first half of 2022 and the second-generation 3nm process in 2023. However, many problems in the 4nm and 5nm processes have made the outside world generally skeptical about Samsung's plans.
Having said Samsung, let's talk about the yield rate of TSMC. Recent news said: If the yield rate of TSMC's 3nm process cannot be reached, and if it is not solved before mass production, it will affect TSMC's production capacity in the 3nm process process, which in turn will affect the production capacity of related customers, resulting in the chip roadmap of some customers being affected.
Foreign media also mentioned in the report that if the yield rate of TSMC's 3nm process continues to be low, it will lead to a large number of customers delaying the use of the 3nm process and extending the adoption time of the 5nm process.
Faced with a low yield, Samsung Electronics' management has decided to investigate the low yield rate of non-memory advanced process chips, focusing on the current and former executives of relevant departments, including whether there is any misinformation in the previously submitted process yield reports, and whether the funds used to improve the yield rate of advanced processes have been effectively used.
In terms of TSMC, according to previous rumors, the first wave of customers of the 3nm process should be Apple and Intel. The A16 chip on apple's iPhone 14, which will be released this fall, has been confirmed to be a 4nm process, so there is still some time to consider how to choose the A17 released next year in the chip process. However, in terms of the low yield of the 3nm process, in several consecutive quarters of earnings analyst conference calls, TSMC said that it was advancing as planned.