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Samsung Begins Chip Production Using 3nm Process Technology With GAA Architecture

Optimized 3nm process achieves 45% reduced power usage, 23% improved performance and 16% smaller surface area compared to 5nm process

▲ The leaders of Samsung Foundry Business and Semiconductor R&D Center are holding up three fingers as a symbol of 3nm celebrating the company’s first ever production of 3nm process with GAA architecture.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in semiconductor technology, today announced that it has started initial production of its 3-nanometer (nm) process node applying Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture.

Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MBCFET™), Samsung’s GAA technology implemented for the first time ever, defies the performance limitations of FinFET, improving power efficiency by reducing the supply voltage level, while also enhancing performance by increasing drive current capability.

Samsung is starting the first application of the nanosheet transistor with semiconductor chips for high performance, low power computing application and plans to expand to mobile processors.

“Samsung has grown rapidly as we continue to demonstrate leadership in applying next-generation technologies to manufacturing, such as foundry industry’s first High-K Metal Gate, FinFET, as well as EUV. We seek to continue this leadership with the world’s first 3nm process with the MBCFET™,” said Dr. Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue active innovation in competitive technology development and build processes that help expedite achieving maturity of technology.”

▲ (From left) Michael Jeong, Corporate Vice President; Ja-Hum Ku, Corporate Executive Vice President; and Sang Bom Kang, Corporate Vice President at Samsung Foundry Business are holding up 3nm wafers at the production line of Samsung Electronics Hwaseong Campus.

Design-Technology Optimization for Maximized PPA

Samsung’s proprietary technology utilizes nanosheets with wider channels, which allow higher performance and greater energy efficiency compared to GAA technologies using nanowires with narrower channels. Utilizing the 3nm GAA technology, Samsung will be able to adjust the channel width of the nanosheet in order to optimize power usage and performance to meet various customer needs.

In addition, the design flexibility of GAA is highly advantageous for Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO),1 which helps boost Power, Performance, Area (PPA) benefits. Compared to 5nm process, the first-generation 3nm process can reduce power consumption by up to 45%, improve performance by 23% and reduce area by 16% compared to 5nm, while the second-generation 3nm process is to reduce power consumption by up to 50%, improve performance by 30% and reduce area by 35%.

Providing 3nm Design Infrastructure & Services With SAFE™ Partners

As technology nodes get smaller and chip performance needs grow greater, IC designers face challenges of handling tremendous amounts of data to verify complex products with more functions and tighter scaling. To meet such demands, Samsung strives to provide a more stable design environment to help reduce the time required for design, verification and sign-off process, while also boosting product reliability.

Since the third quarter of 2021, Samsung Electronics has been providing proven design infrastructure through extensive preparation with Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE™) partners including Ansys, Cadence, Siemens and Synopsys, to help customers perfect their product in a reduced period of time.

CrytoAware Opinion:

This is great news considering the hype currently surrounding the move that Ethereum is making away from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake.  Personally, I invest nominally, in a few Proof of Stake cryptocurrencies and although these are all pretty cool projects, I can’t help feeling that the big stuff is happening with Proof of Work?

All the ground breaking environmental strides forward and being done by the Bitcoin end of the crypto landscape.  Maybe Proof of Work doesn’t need to do/establish anything because it’s already cool enough, it’s just a bit boring.

The big daddy of all crypto is moderated by the mining community.  If they are ok, they will remain profitable and help drive forward new innovations.  Although outdated and ill-informed government departments are clamping down on them, they have proven resilient in innovative in the face of adversity (did you know there are still some miners operating illegally in China despite the ban?)

So long as we have miners pushing to improve the hashrate, and suppliers wishing to develop greener, safer and more profitable ways to do it, we will continue to maintain the safest and most reliable currency in the world.

 

Content retrieved from: https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-begins-chip-production-using-3nm-process-technology-with-gaa-architecture.