Design services and services according to customer request
Expanding the role of foundries to packaging sectors
Samsung Electronics Foundry Technology Disclosure, Including 3nm Process
On the 3rd (local time), Samsung Electronics Foundry Business Division President Eun-Seung Jung gave a keynote speech on the topic of '4th Industrial Revolution and Foundry: Challenges and Opportunities' at the 'International Electronic Devices Meeting (IEDM)' held in San Francisco, USA.

IEDM is one of the world's top three semiconductor conferences, along with the ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuit Conference) and the VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) conference, and is attended by semiconductor experts from around the world.

In his keynote speech, President Jeong emphasized that in order to process the rapidly increasing data in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, it is necessary to continuously improve performance and power efficiency by increasing semiconductor integration, and to this end, the evolution of advanced foundry technologies such as EUV exposure technology and STT-MRAM (Spin Transfer Torque-Magnetoresistive RAM) is important..

EUV exposure technology is a technology that emerged when the existing exposure process using argon fluoride (ArF) light source reached its limit as semiconductor processes recently entered 10nm or less. EUV is a light source that can replace argon fluoride, and because its wavelength is less than 1/14 of that of the existing argon fluoride, it is suitable for implementing more detailed semiconductor circuit patterns, and it has the advantage of simultaneously securing high performance and productivity of semiconductors by reducing complex multi-patterning processes.

STT-MRAM is a next-generation memory semiconductor that uses a magnetic material structure. It has the characteristics of flash memory in which data does not disappear even when the power is turned off, and has the advantage of being much faster than existing DRAMs in terms of data processing speed and lower power consumption.
President Chung also stated that high-level semiconductor technology is needed to actually implement new ideas such as self-driving cars and smart homes, and that in the future, the foundry business will not only strengthen its existing role of contract manufacturing semiconductors, but also expand cooperation from design services to packaging/testing according to customer requests.

President Jeong Eun-seung also revealed Samsung Electronics' latest research results, such as the 3nm process using the GAA (Gate-All-Around) transistor structure, along with the industry's technological trends, drawing great attention from attendees. Samsung Electronics is currently completing performance verification of the 3nm process and is increasing the level of technological perfection.

The GAA transistor structure is a next-generation transistor structure that is one step more advanced than the FinFET structure currently used in advanced semiconductor processes. Unlike FinFET, where the gate surrounds three sides of the channel, it surrounds all four sides of the channel, allowing more precise control of the flow of current.

In concluding his keynote speech, President Chung emphasized, “The various recent technological achievements in the semiconductor industry would not have been possible without cooperation in the equipment and materials sectors,” and “Going forward, borderless cooperation among industry, research institutes, and academia is absolutely necessary.”

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics is strengthening its advanced process ecosystem by cooperating with global customers and partners through the ‘Samsung Foundry Forum’ and the Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE).

SAFE is a program that strengthens collaboration between Samsung Foundry, ecosystem partners, and customers to effectively design excellent products. Through this program, Samsung Foundry provides design automation (EDA) tools and design methodologies (DM) to support customers’ semiconductor design and verification.