Samsung Elec to employ 1.4 nano process in foundry output by 2027

Choi Si-young. [Photo by Samsung Electronics Co.]

Samsung Electronics Co. will employ 1.4 nanometers (nm) process technology for foundry mass production in 2027 as it races to close the gap with dominant foundry player Taiwan’s TSMC that has also announced to introduce 1.4nm technology.

Samsung Electronics during an annual Samsung Foundry Forum event held on Sunday (local time) in San Jose, California, announced that it will adopt 2nm process technology by 2025 and mass produce on 1.4nm process technology by 2027 to triple production capacity by 2027.

“The technology development goal down to 1.4nm and foundry platforms specialized for each application, together with stable supply through consistent investment are all part of Samsung’s strategies to secure customers’ trust and support their success,” said Dr. Choi Si-young, president and head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “Realizing every customer’s innovations with our partners has been at the core of our foundry service.”

The Korean chip giant unveiled a plan to begin mass production on 1.4nm process technology earlier through advanced packaging and process technology. Samsung in 2015 mass produced FinFET transistors and in June this year began enhancing its gate-all-around (GAA)-based 3nm process technology to win clients in high-performance and low-power semiconductor markets such as HPC, automotive, 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT).

TSMC earlier announced shift to 1.4nm technology, but it is yet to detail the roadmap.

The global market share of Samsung Electronics’ foundry sales reached 16.5 percent in the second quarter this year, up 0.2 percentage point from 16.3 percent during the first quarter while the top foundry company TSMC’s dropped by 0.2 percentage point to 53.4 percent over the same period.

Samsung Electronics will make massive investments in foundry business as it expects the global foundry market will expand rapidly. According to global technology industry tracker Omdia, the global foundry market will hit $145.6 billion in 2025, surging 13.4 percent annually from $98.6 billion this year.

The Korean chip giant is forecast to invest $192.1 billion in total to build 11 semiconductor plants in Texas to expand its foundry market share.

During the forum, Samsung Electronics also announced a plan to speed up the development of 2.5D/3D heterogeneous integration packaging technology, which integrates separately manufactured chips into a higher-level assembly.

Samsung is planning to continue innovating I-Cube which incorporates four High Bandwidth Memories (HBMs) and one logic die as well as eXtended-Cube (X-Cube), which allows chip-stacking of SRAM dies on top of a base logic die. The company plans to ready mass production of 3D packaging X-Cube with micro-bump interconnection for mass production in 2024, and the bump-less X-Cube will be available in 2026.

Samsung is also expanding its production capacity by more than three times through its “Shell-First” strategy where it begins production even before receiving orders.

Shares of Samsung Electronics traded up 3.77 percent at 55,100 won ($38.42) during Tuesday morning trade.

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