Samsung Semiconductor has had a little trouble in recent years.
Not to mention anything else, my friend touched his phone and looked at the 888 and 8gen1 produced by Samsung Fabs. It can be said to be a hand warmer in winter and a hot potato in summer.
The products that were finally produced in OEM have become "rats crossing the street" that everyone calls for, and the yield rate of chip production is not good either.
even Samsung myself wondered afterwards, , why do I tell you the best rate of my own chip technology?
This is what? Shangshangshang launched a survey last month, but there is no explanation yet.
And as the top ten semiconductor companies in the world, when everyone is calling for lack of chips, Samsung has become the only company with a decline in revenue in the first quarter of . . .
Looking at TSMC on top, his envious face turned green.
So, Samsung, which was able to build cameras, mobile phones, systems, and chips back then, what exactly did it fail in to reduce the number of in recent years?
The mobile phone industry has suffered a downfall. The panel industry has been gradually challenged by domestic manufacturers and has given up its own chip architecture. Even the only two chip foundry industry in the world that produces less than 5nm technology is so disliked by everyone?
As a company that has been passed down for many years, Samsung's poor performance in recent years can be said to be inseparable from 's internal strife .
In recent years, we have also been able to see a lot of this kind of Samsung news, including what is the lack of yield rate and deceive the superiors and subordinates, and what is the seniority ranking, and departments still dislike each other. . . , the infighting method we can imagine, , may have tried it.
This Samsung Prince is urgent. In August 2021, Lee Jae-yong "For the Country" was released from prison, less than three months after the company was released from prison, there were quite a wave of personnel adjustments.
Samsung mobile department, three CEOs of Samsung consumer electronics and device solutions department were all removed, and the first two departments were merged into the new department SET.
After a while, Lee Jae-yong also transferred Song Jae-hyuk, the former leader of the flash development department, to , the semiconductor R&D department, , as the latest person in charge, and sent Nancy Seo-woo, vice president of global manufacturing and infrastructure of the semiconductor equipment solutions department, to serve as the head of wafer foundry manufacturing technology center.
sent these two generals who fought in the memory field of to the wafer foundry field . Samsung's intention to plot semiconductors can be said to be very obvious.
After all, it is already obvious what the result would be if the internal strife was the same as in the past. What makes
more terrifying than the decline in yield rate is that it makes buyers of the advanced process lose confidence.
Qualcomm and Nvidia play the role of Samsung's big buyer here.
However, these two have now cooperated with TSMC and urgently launched 8+Gen1 to cope with the rise of MediaTek this year. One announced that the next generation of 40 series gaming graphics cards will also be developed based on TSMC's N4 process.
Image source: wccftech▼
Not long ago, the media also obtained the 8+Gen1 engineering machine and tested it. Compared with the 8Gen1 produced by Samsung before. . . The performance is a little higher and the power consumption is lower. . .
This is truly a car crash that is not scary, and it is embarrassing to whoever is inferior.
pic source Geek Bay ▼
bad reviewsjun also heard a hell joke in the chip industry:
In the past, when we made chips, we paid money with one hand and produced them according to the number of wafers consumed, each company has its own yield rate, and how many chips can be made depends on the yield rate to draw the prize. We have been in peace for many years.
and when it comes to Samsung, it is really not easy to compliment. So they become calculated based on how many chips can actually be produced in the end. . .
hand over money in one hand and chip in the other.
. . . It really made Samsung wonder why it has such a poor yield rate.
Of course, the chip process, fails and succeeds.
After all, the name of 5nm and 4nm is more of a name used by manufacturers to promote their own process nodes, and there is no absolute physical meaning to refer to it. Why Samsung is so embarrassed now is largely because the latest chip is not as good as TSMC next door, , , yield rate, power consumption, transistor density can't beat others.
process density diagrams for each company, source: Digtimes▼
So, if the chip made by Samsung is better in yield rate , , power consumption is lower , transistor density is better , then these annoying problems will be solved.
Coincidentally, Samsung also thinks so, and the future they are betting on is 3nm technology.
Samsung will be the first fab in the world to enter the GAA structure. What is
GAA? Simply put, it is likely to be the next-generation transistor technology that we will use on our mobile phone SoCs.
In recent years, with the evolution of Moore's Law , the chip is getting smaller and smaller, and the power consumption of transistors is getting lower and lower. However, as transistors become smaller and smaller, a new problem - leakage is also coming as expected.
After chip design entered the nano field, the leakage problem of static power consumption began to overturn.
For example, if the transistor is regarded as a "switch", the leakage problem is like the switch that does not turn on , , but there will still be leakage current .
This is the "short channel effect". If you want to reduce the leakage power consumption it brings, you need to find a new structure or new material.
After making the chip to 22nm, the technology we use is called FinFET (fin field effect transistor ).
increases the contact area by "embedding" to obtain better leakage control performance, which is a bit like making the previous one-dimensional transistor into two-dimensional.
Nowadays, the chip is getting smaller and smaller, and FinFET is not enough to reach the threshold of 3nm.
And this time, everyone has made a new future process to solve the problem, called GAA (full-ring gate transistor).
This is a bit like two-dimensional becomes three-dimensional. When FinFET, the three-sided surroundings become four-sided surroundings, so that all the electrons that are about to move are caught in one place.
According to Samsung's report, compared with its own 7nm process, the initial version of its own GAA, 3GAE (3nm Gate-All_Around Early) can reduce chip area by 35%, improve performance by 30%, and reduce power consumption by 50%.
This cake looks very delicious. . .Improve performance by 30% and reduce power consumption by 50%. . . With this improvement, no fire dragon must be lying down and turn it into an ice dragon.
No, wait, why are you comparing the 3nm process with the mass-produced 7nm process in 2017? Why don’t you use 4nm that is obviously closer?
Well, in fact, Samsung also gave technical comparisons of 3nm and 4nm processes, but - not completely given. The comparison picture of
is indeed given one, but it is. . . There is only this one, what about the ruler for horizontal and vertical coordinates? What is the starting unit for comparison?
Do you tell me how much stronger it is?
I think you don’t understand at all. jpg
As the " first person to eat crabs in the GAA field " we can understand that Samsung will face many technical challenges.
But look at the time Samsung plans to mass produce 3nm, 2022 second quarter.
The 5nm and 4nm from home are a bit water-filled, and they are a bit behind in transistor density.
I don’t know if Samsung is considered “to drive the duck and put it on the shelves”. It may be a question mark whether the first generation of GAAs can compete with TSMC’s high-density mature finFETs.
In the past, the first batch of products of new process iterated nodes, , has also experienced the actual performance, but it is not as good as 's previous generation process enhancement node product . (For example, Intel 10nm and 14++)
In addition to the different technical routes of the two companies, if Samsung wants to achieve a counterattack against TSMC in the 3nm or 2nm stage, it must pass the lithography machine level.
In this regard, TSMC and ASML can be said to have a deep friendship with revolutionary comrades.
20 years ago ASML is still unknown in the field of lithography. It is due to in-depth cooperation with TSMC and met the right person at the right time.
Two companies work together to develop 193nm immersive lithography technology. He drove out the former lithography machine giant Nikon .
From 45nm 20 years ago to 7nm process a few years ago, all rely on immersion lithography technology.
Samsung does not have this relationship like TSMC, so it has to look at the lithography machine and find another way to do it.
You see that it was not long after you were out of prison. Lee Jae-yong, who had just finished rectifying the internal affairs, went to European countries last week. He didn't stay in other places, so he went directly to Dutch to chat and laugh with the senior officials of ASML and the Dutch Prime Minister.
All of this is for the latest EUV (extreme ultraviolet light) lithography machines.
In general, although Samsung has lost the opportunity in the 5nm and 4nm market, it does not mean that it has completely lost the opportunity to counterattack.
After all, the chip industry is an extremely compact market. If the former top brand takes a wrong step, it may lose its leading advantage in the next generation of technology.
,000 TSMC's 3nm FinFET really fails because it cannot control its power consumption?
" The king's power has no eternity " In this industry, it is common for the leader to go for the wrong path.
In the past, Intel behind the 14nm process gate, and now, Samsung in front of the 7nm door is the same. In the future, TSMC, which still insists on using FinFETs, may be the same.
But no matter what, it is unreliable to rely on others to fail.
2022 Q2 quarter has passed more than half, and now there is not much time left for Samsung.
