Samsung was the first foundry in Enter volume production at 3nm In 2022, the company beat TSMC by nearly six months and Intel by several years. It is now trying to regain its first-to-market position with 2nm transistors. But according to a new report from Korea, its yields are so low that it has begun moving staff out of its Taylor, Texas, facility while it considers the path forward.
The next generation of transistors will use a gate-area-around (GAA) design instead of FinFETs. Samsung has already adopted this technology for its 3nm and lower nodes. TSMC and Intel have not and are waiting until 2nm to do so, which puts Samsung ahead of the curve but also forces it to encounter problems it never had to overcome. That said, both its 3nm and 2nm processes are now reported to suffer from very low yields, with the 2nm version reportedly only 10-20% higher, according to a source who speak with Business Korea.
In fact, Samsung was the first foundry in the world to enter high-volume production of 3nm GAA transistors, in mid-2022.
Credit: Samsung
The source of the report claims that all of Samsung's all-around gate nodes are experiencing low performances, as they are supposedly below 50%. Samsung has also reported rebranded its second-generation 3nm process as 2nmSo the report seems to indicate that Samsung had low yields at 3nm, and then even lower yields when it tried to further optimize that process. In contrast, the report says that rival foundry TSMC has 3nm yields of around 60-70%, which has allowed it to acquire juicy contracts that Samsung could have landed with better yields.
An example of this contract competition is Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip. According According to Wccftech, Samsung has awarded that contract to TSMC, but wants Samsung to create the Gen 5 successor as Samsung can offer a better price. It was also previously reported that Samsung would be Offering 2nm at a discount to attract customers from TSMC and Intel, but it will need to improve performance before it can get a customer to sign a contract.
The report paints a bleak picture for Samsung's foundry operations overall, claiming it controls just 11% of the market compared to 62.3% for the 460-kilogram giant that is TSMC. On a related note, in May, the newly installed The vice president sent a direct memo to his semiconductor employees Samsung warns of the need for a new corporate culture that is willing to report newly discovered problems to management. Samsung is also reportedly cutting up to 30% of its global workforce. according to Reuters, but it is unclear whether the reallocations of its Taylor, TX plant are part of this reduction or simply a consequence of its 2nm problems.
