Samsung Electronics held the ‘Samsung Foundry Forum 2022’ in Silicon Valley, USA on the 3rd (local time) and unveiled new foundry technologies and business strategies.

This year’s Samsung Foundry Forum, which was held offline for the first time in three years, was held in the presence of 500 people including fabless customers, business partners and partners.

Samsung Electronics announced that it will strengthen the competitiveness of its foundry business by focusing on innovation in foundry technology, providing optimal processes for each application, customized services, and securing stable production capacity.

“The success of our customers is the reason for the existence of Samsung Electronics’ foundry business,” said Choi Si-young, president of Samsung Electronics’ foundry business division.

□ Reinforcement of front-end process leadership through foundry technology innovation… Mass production of 1.4 nanometers in 2027

Samsung Electronics is accelerating the development of next-generation packaging stacking technology along with innovations in the front-end foundry process.

Samsung Electronics mass-produced FinFET transistors for the first time in the world in 2015, and started mass production of the world’s first 3nm first-generation process using GAA (Gate All Around) transistor technology in June. is expanding

In addition, Samsung Electronics will continue to innovate GAA-based process technology and plan to introduce a 2-nano process in 2025 and a 1.4-nano process in 2027.

At the same time as process innovation, Samsung Electronics is accelerating the development of 2.5D/3D heterogeneous integration packaging technology.

In particular, Samsung Electronics is planning to apply Samsung’s proprietary MBCFET (Multi Bridge Channel FET) structure to 3nm GAA technology, while also providing 3D IC solutions and high-performance semiconductor foundry services.

Starting with the successful launch of the high-bandwidth memory HBM2 in 2015, Samsung Electronics continues to innovate packaging stacking technologies, such as I-Cube (2.5D) in 2018 and X-Cube (3D) in 2020.
* I-Cube is a 2.5D package technology that places logic and HBM on a silicon interposer, and
X-Cube is a 3D package technology that thinly stacks multiple chips in a wafer state.

Samsung Electronics plans to mass-produce the u-bump (micro bump) type X-Cube in 2024 and introduce the bump-less type X-Cube in 2026.
* u-Bump (micro Bump): More I/O can be put into the packaging than normal bumps, so more data can be processed
* Bump-less: More I/Os can be inserted by eliminating bumps from packaging Able to implement more throughput than u-Bump

□ Increase the proportion of HPC, 5G, automotive, etc. to more than 50% by 2027

Samsung Electronics plans to actively target the high-performance, low-power semiconductor market such as HPC (High Performance Computing), automotive (vehicle semiconductor), 5G, and IoT, and increase the proportion of sales of product groups excluding mobile to more than 50% by 2027.

Samsung Electronics mass-produced HPC products based on 3-nano process for the first time in the world in June, and then expands 4-nano process to HPC and automotive. eNVM (embedded Non-Volatile Memory) and RF also developed various processes to provide foundry services tailored to customer needs.

Samsung Electronics is expanding the currently mass-produced 28nm eNVM solution for vehicles to 14nm by 2024, and is also developing technology for an 8nm eNVM solution in the future.

Samsung Electronics will also expand RF process services. Samsung Electronics succeeded in mass-producing 8-nano RF products for the first time in the world following the 14-nano RF process that is currently being mass-produced, and is also developing a 5-nano RF process.

□ Reinforce customer-tailored services by expanding the SAFE ecosystem

As of 2022, Samsung Electronics is providing 56 design asset (IP) partners and more than 4,000 IP, and is also cooperating with 9 and 22 partners in Design Solution Partner (DSP) and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) fields, respectively. . In addition, it is providing cloud services with 9 partners and packaging services with 10 outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) partners.

Samsung Electronics plans to discover new fabless customers by reinforcing customized services with improved performance and features, fast delivery time, and price competitiveness, while also actively attracting new customers such as Hyperscaler and Startup.
* Hyperscaler: A company that operates large-scale data centers

Following the ‘Samsung Foundry Forum’, Samsung Electronics will also hold the ‘Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem Forum’ on the 4th to introduce new foundry technologies and strategies with partners in the fields of EDA, IP, OSAT, DSP, and Cloud. .

□ Responding to customer needs in a timely manner by operating the ‘Shell First’ line

Samsung Electronics plans to more than triple the production capacity of the front-end process by 2027 compared to this year to actively respond to customer needs.

Samsung Electronics operates front-end process foundry manufacturing lines in Pyeongtaek, Hwaseong, and Taylor in the US, and mass-produces maturation processes in Hwaseong, Giheung, and Austin, US.

In particular, Samsung Electronics plans to respond quickly and flexibly to market demand by operating the ‘Shell First’ line.

‘Shell First’ means proactively responding to customer demand by preemptively constructing clean rooms and securing stable production capacity through flexible facility investment in connection with future market demand.

Samsung Electronics plans to carry out the second line to invest in, following the first line of Taylor Foundry in the US, according to ‘Shell First’, and also announced the possibility of expanding its global lines at home and abroad in the future.

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics held the ‘Samsung Foundry Forum’ in sequence, starting with the US (Silicon Valley) on October 3 (local time), Europe (Munich, Germany) on the 7th, Japan (Tokyo) on the 18th, and Korea (Seoul) on the 20th. ‘ and introduce solutions tailored to customers in each region.

In addition, for global customers who are unable to attend offline, the event will be released online from the 21st.

▲Samsung Foundry Forum 2022 held in Silicon Valley, USA on October 3 (local time), CEO Si-Young Choi, president of the foundry business, is giving a presentation

▲ Participants at the ‘Samsung Foundry Forum 2022’ held in Silicon Valley, USA on October 3 (local time)