The advanced process investment of wafer foundry giants stems from the explosion of demand in the chip market. With the promotion of emerging technologies such as AI and high-performance computing, the importance of advanced manufacturing processes in the wafer foundry industry has become increasingly prominent, attracting wafer foundry companies such as TSMC, Samsung, and Intel to accelerate the introduction of more advanced manufacturing technologies to meet the continuous growth of market demand.
Intel CEO Kissinger stated at the "Intel Innovation Taipei 2023 Technology Forum" that the Intel 7 process technology has been mass-produced, the Intel 4 process has also been mass-produced, the Intel 3 process is ready to begin mass production, the Intel 20A process will be mass-produced as scheduled in 2024, and the Intel 18A process will be the ultimate goal of the 5th generation process. Relevant design rules have been determined. He emphasized that Intel will be able to achieve its goal of promoting 5th generation process technology within 4 years as scheduled.
In terms of TSMC, the company's N3X and 2nm processes plan to enter the mass production stage in 2025. TSMC introduced that the company will use Gate all round FETs (GAAFET) transistors for the first time in the 2nm process node. Compared to N3E, this process can increase the speed to 15% at the fastest under the same power consumption; At the same speed, the power consumption can be reduced by up to 30%, while the chip density increases by more than 15%.
On the Samsung side, the company has mass-produced its second generation 3nm chips and plans to launch a 2nm process by the end of 2025 and a 1.4nm process by the end of 2027. In October of this year, media reported that Samsung Foundry, a wafer foundry under Samsung Electronics, had begun to contact large chip customers and was preparing to provide services for 1.4nm and 2nm processes. It takes approximately 3 years for wafer foundry customers to make a final purchase decision. Samsung is in contact with major customers and may showcase results in the coming years.
According to the Samsung Manufacturing Forum (SFF) plan, mass production of 2 nanometer process (SF2) will begin in 2025 for use in the field of action; Expand to High Performance Computing (HPC) applications in 2026, and then expand to the automotive industry in 2027.
In addition, Samsung, like Intel, will first OEM its own products, and the 2-nanometer process products will be used for Samsung products first, rather than external customer products.
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