In recent years, TSMC has been in a leading position in the industry in terms of process technology. Recently, however, competition has intensified in the chip manufacturing process, with both Samsung and Intel challenging TSMC. Recently, Samsung has ushered in another major breakthrough in 3nm and wants to compete with TSMC.
According to the news on January 23, Samsung's wafer foundry has begun trial production of the second-generation 3nm process, which is named SF3. This is an important milestone event for Samsung Semiconductor, which not only marks Samsung's significant progress in the field of semiconductor technology, but also means that it will compete with semiconductor giants such as TSMC for supremacy in advanced process nodes.
So, in the competition of the second-generation 3nm process, who is better Samsung or TSMC?
First of all, let's take a look at Samsung's SF3 process.
A unique technical feature of the SF3 node has been reported to be the implementation of different gate-by-ring (GAA) transistor nanosheet channel widths within the same cell. This innovative design brings unprecedented flexibility to the chip, allowing designers to adjust the performance and power consumption of the transistors according to their actual needs.
Not only does this significantly improve the performance of the chip and reduce power consumption, but it also helps to increase the transistor density, resulting in smaller chip sizes.
These advantages of the SF3 process make it promising for applications in many fields such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and automotive. With the rapid development of these fields, the demand for high-performance, low-power chips is also growing. Samsung's SF3 process has undoubtedly provided a strong impetus for the development of these areas.
However, TSMC's technical advantages in 3nm are also very distinctive.
As the world's leading semiconductor manufacturer, TSMC is also constantly pursuing technological breakthroughs. For the second-generation 3nm (N3E) process, TSMC has also invested a lot of R&D resources and energy. It is understood that TSMC's N3E process also has unique advantages in some aspects.
For example, the N3E process uses advanced transistor architectures and materials, resulting in a significant increase in chip performance. Moreover, the process uses advanced packaging technology, which makes the chip thinner and lighter while maintaining high performance. In addition, TSMC also has rich experience in production efficiency and cost control.
At the same time, the N3E process also has better reliability and stability. With the continuous shrinking of semiconductor processes, the reliability and stability of chips are difficult to control, and they are becoming more and more concerned by the industry. With years of technological leadership, TSMC has adopted a number of innovative technologies to ensure the stability and reliability of transistors.
So, in the competition between SF3 and TSMC's second-generation 3nm process, who is better?
This is a complex issue, as different process technologies have their own unique advantages and use cases. In practice, which process is better needs to be evaluated according to the specific application scenario and needs.
First of all, TSMC, as an industry leader, has rich production experience and a complete supply chain system. In the R&D and production process of the second-generation 3nm process, TSMC may pay more attention to production efficiency and cost control. Therefore, the technology chosen by TSMC is still FinFET, which will have more advantages in maturity and cost control.
In addition, TSMC has a broad customer base and a strong partner ecosystem, which gives it an advantage in the market competition. Not long ago, a number of well-known chip companies placed orders with TSMC to purchase second-generation 3nm process capacity, including industry giants such as Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and MediaTek.
However, it is worth noting that the successful trial production of Samsung's SF3 process also proves that Samsung also has deep technology accumulation and innovation capabilities in the field of semiconductor technology.
In addition, Samsung also plans to increase the process yield of SF3 to more than 60% in the next six months, which is higher than the previous first-generation 3nm process yield. If this goal is achieved, it will lay the foundation for Samsung's 3nm yield to be further improved, and will further strengthen Samsung's position in the global semiconductor market.
In addition, Samsung itself is a giant in the field of consumer electronics, and its 3nm process can be used for itself first. For example, Samsung plans to apply the SF3 process to wearable device processors first, and the next step is to apply the SF3 process to smartphone chips.
Samsung's own digestion of 3nm process capacity will help promote the continuous optimization of its process technology, which will greatly help it actively expand the market share of the chip business.
Judging from the current information, TSMC has the first-mover advantage in terms of customers, but Samsung's latecomers are not necessarily too bad, and the competition is still very fierce.
In summary, the pilot production of the second-generation 3nm process is an important milestone for Samsung, but there are many technical and production challenges that need to be overcome to commercialize this technology and apply it to actual products. At the same time, Samsung also needs to face stiff competition from competitors such as TSMC.
So, who do you think will have a better chance of winning in the future?