In a recent article, Business Korea reports that Samsung is in talks with ASML to purchase 10 EUV production machines at a cost of $176.52 million each.

As semiconductor production processes shrinks below the recently introduced 8nm LPP process, printing chips with the current photochemical etching techniques will become much more difficult resulting in the need for the new EUV production process. Samsung has been aggressively developing chips utilizing EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet) etching technology as they plan on starting production of chips using the 7nm EUV process as early as 2018.

What’s interesting about Samsung’s recent order for EUV [...]

Samsung has announced today that its 8nm LPP FinFET process has been qualified and ready for production three months ahead of schedule.

According to the announcement, Samsung’s 8nm LPP will bring up to 10% power efficiency and 10% area reduction over the 10nm LPP thanks to the narrower metal pitch. The 8nm LPP node will be Samsung’s last node before transitioning to 7nm EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet).

Samsung states that the 8nm LPP will soon transition into stable mass production using current production techniques used for the 10nm LPP node.

“With the qualification completed three months ahead of schedule, we have commenced 8LPP [...]

Last year, TSMC announced that development for 5nm, 3nm, and even 2nm process nodes were in progress and it appears that everything is going well. TSMC’s 7nm process is on track for 2018 and their 5nm process is on track for early 2019. While details on their 3nm process was relatively sparse, it appears that 3nm is on track as well given a recent announcement from TSMC confirms that they’ve  already selected the location for their next generation semiconductor manufacturing.

According to the short announcement, TSMC’s upcoming 3nm fab will be built in the Tainan Science Park in southern Taiwan. TSMC selected the site in order to [...]

Samsung is continuing the push to the limits of process technology as the company recently revealed two of its newest manufacturing processes, 11nm LPP (Low Power Plus) and 7nm LPP with EUV.

According to the announcement, Samsung’s new 11nm LPP is an alternative process to the 10nm FinFET process designed for mid-range to high end mobile processors. The 11nm LPP process offers up to 15% higher performance and up to 10% chip area reduction while drawing the same amount of power as their current 14nm LPP process. The new process is scheduled for production in the 1H2018.

Following the 11nm LPP process is the 7nm LPP process with EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet) [...]

According to DigiTimes, TSMC has won the bid to manufacture Qualcomm’s baseband chips on the 7nm node. The chip order is for the baseband processors only and not for application processors. Qualcomm is still making a decision between Samsung and TSMC for the production of its next-generation APs, and is waiting to see the second generation 7nm products from both companies before it makes a decision.

Both Samsung and TSMC will be switching from HKMG to EUV process technology at the 7nm node. Samsung announced that its 7nm Low Power Plus transistors made using EUV will be available in 2018, while TSMC said its 7nm EUV node will be ready by 2019.

TSMC [...]

IBM Research Alliance recently announced that they’ve developed a process to produce the world’s first 5nm transistors. The new transistors will allow IBM to squeeze as much as 30 billion transistors into a chip just 50mm² resulting in as much as 40% improvement in performance at the same power or a 75% reduction in power at the same level of performance when compared to current generation cutting edge 10nm technology.

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 [...]

In an AMD investors meeting, AMD CEO Lisa Su confirmed that AMD’s 7nm products will tape out this year.

To clear up some confusion, the tape out stage is where the design is finalized and sent for manufacturing. It’s unlikely that we will see the products until a few months after the tape out period.

In AMD’s product roadmap, both its upcoming Navi GPU and Zen 2 CPU will be based on 7nm FinFETs. The roadmap places Zen2 somewhere around 2018 and 2019, while Zen 3, based on 7nm FinFET+, will arrive sometime around 2020.

 

Source: WCCFTech

In a recent announcement, Samsung reports that 10nm FinFET yields are high and they’re on track for a production ramp up.

Samsung initially began production using its 10nm FinFET process with their 10nm FinFET LPE (Low Power Early) process back in October 2016. The process showed a 30% increase in area efficiency with 27% higher performance or up to 40% lower power consumption. Since its initial production, Samsung claims that more than 70,000 wafers have been shipped. Samsung’s Exynos 8895 SoC and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 will be the first chips made with the 10nm FinFET LPE process. Both chips are expected to arrive with Samsung’s next [...]

At the International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC), both TSMC and Samsung had working chips samples built on their respective 7nm nodes. However, the two companies gave very different outlooks on their readiness.

According to the presentation offered by TSMC, they described the condition of their 7nm node as “healthy”. Samsung on the other hand, had a bit less confidence in its production method, showcasing a development chip that suggests 7nm chips may not be ready for at least a few more years.

The reason behind the contradicting prospects is due to the different manufacturing techniques. Because TSMC will likely be producing the [...]

Who said American manufacturing was dead? Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and US President Donald Trump recently announced at the White House that Intel is planning to invest $7 Billion into the completion of Fab 42 in Chandler, Arizona. Fab 42 is expected to produce Intel’s next generation 7nm processors, slated to launch in 2020.

According to the announcement, Fab 42 will take approximately 3 to 4 years to complete and will create approximately 3,000 high tech jobs directly through the facility with an additional estimated 10,000 additional jobs indirectly tied to the support of of the facility as well.