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Latest Samsung foundry info

L

lefty

Active member
Just been reading Samsung's latest blog entry: A Look at Samsung Foundry’s Business Strategy, Manufacturing Excellence and Advanced Technology Updates - Voices@SamsungSemiconductorVoices@SamsungSemiconductor
A few interesting snippets:
* The 14nm FinFET process has half a million wafers so far and a defect density of sub-0.2 defect/cm2. How does that compare to TSMC's 16nm I wonder?
* They have RF and eNVM technology enhancements in their 28FDS nm (whatever is 28FDS is?)
* They have 14LPC (a competitor to TSMC's 16nm FFC presumably).
* They are using EUV in at 7nm (unlike TSMC which will have it at 5nm)
 
It's not yet clear they will use EUV at 7nm. Their exact response was:

"We are reviewing the possibility of EUV adoption very carefully and readiness for mass production will be determined accordingly."
 
Fred Chen said:
It's not yet clear they will use EUV at 7nm. Their exact response was:

"We are reviewing the possibility of EUV adoption very carefully and readiness for mass production will be determined accordingly."
Click to expand...

I was told at SPIE by the Samsung VP of Lithography and again by the Samsung Foundry team yesterday that they will in fact use EUV for 7nm. Samsung 10nm will be a full node versus TSMC's 10nm which will be quickly transitioned to 7nm.
 
Fred Chen said:
It seems too early for Samsung to decide on EUV if they don't even have EUV ready yet.

Samsung Details Foundry Roadmap | EE Times
Click to expand...

Man, you are killing me here. The author of that article went to school with my kids! :cool: Samsung is comfortable with EUV for 7nm in 2020. A lot can happen in 4 years. Intel and Samsung are betting on EUV and TSMC is not. It will be interesting to see how this all works out.

An executive from ASML EUV (Dr. Hans Meiling) even presented at last weeks Samsung event to bring everyone up to date.

Scott Jones will be at the imec Technology Forum in Brussels next month so expect another EUV update after that.
 
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It appears Samsung has an LELELE triple patterning process that can go down to N10 but not N7 while TSMC has an SAQP process that can go down to N7 with a reasonable number of masks. Both are hoping to do N5 with EUV, however, N5 with EUV requires two EUV cut exposures (per IMEC), which is still too expensive. Two EUV exposures worse than 4 193i exposures. Therefore, they should be looking for the more efficient multi-patterning at N5.
 
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Fred Chen said:
It appears Samsung has an LELELE triple patterning process that can go down to N10 but not N7 while TSMC has an SAQP process that can go down to N7 with a reasonable number of masks. Both are hoping to do N5 with EUV, however, N5 with EUV requires two EUV cut exposures (per IMEC), which is still too expensive. Two EUV exposures worse than 4 193i exposures. Therefore, they should be looking for the more efficient multi-patterning at N5.
Click to expand...

I agree completely. I think Samsung will also have a Moore aggressive BEOL for 10nm than TSMC which will result in better density, but I think TSMC 7nm will more than make up for it. It will be interesting to compare the Apple and QCOM 10nm SoCs next year.
 
According to this story from yesterday Samsung has ordered NXE3400 to be used in manufacturing of 7 nm node starting soon (2017?):

[table] style="width: 100%"
|-
| valign="top" style="width: 450px" | "Samsung Electronics representatives including one executive vice president visited ASML headquarters in the first week of May," an official who is directly involved with the issue told The Korea Times, Sunday.

"Samsung agreed to purchase ASML's latest NXE3400 EUV equipment, a deal which is worth millions of dollars, to deploy the equipment in 7nm processing technology."

ASML is the top supplier in the world of photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry. It manufactures machines for the production of integrated circuits such as CPUs and memory chips.

The official said the latest decision by Samsung was intended to diversify the company's logic customer base given some losses of Apple and to further improve sales and operating margins.

"The installation of the upcoming EUV in Samsung's logic chip line is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017, at the earliest. This is the first time for Samsung to deploy an EUV in its chip-manufacturing line," said the official.

|-
[/table]


Samsung plans to strike back against TSMC

User nl
 
user nl said:
According to this story from yesterday Samsung has ordered NXE3400 to be used in manufacturing of 7 nm node starting soon (2017?):

[table] style="width: 100%"
|-
| valign="top" style="width: 450px" | "Samsung Electronics representatives including one executive vice president visited ASML headquarters in the first week of May," an official who is directly involved with the issue told The Korea Times, Sunday.

"Samsung agreed to purchase ASML's latest NXE3400 EUV equipment, a deal which is worth millions of dollars, to deploy the equipment in 7nm processing technology."

ASML is the top supplier in the world of photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry. It manufactures machines for the production of integrated circuits such as CPUs and memory chips.

The official said the latest decision by Samsung was intended to diversify the company's logic customer base given some losses of Apple and to further improve sales and operating margins.

"The installation of the upcoming EUV in Samsung's logic chip line is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017, at the earliest. This is the first time for Samsung to deploy an EUV in its chip-manufacturing line," said the official.

|-
[/table]


Samsung plans to strike back against TSMC

User nl
Click to expand...

It made me think of the 15 tools for the US, Intel presumably.
 
Fred Chen said:
It made me think of the 15 tools for the US, Intel presumably.
Click to expand...

Ditto. The latest update I have on EUV is there there are still pellicle problems. I will be at the TSMC Symposium in Taiwan next week and will get an update. Scott Jones is also at the imec symposium in Brussels. More info to follow.

TSMC will have 7nm in 2017 without EUV. My guess is that EUV 7nm is 1-2 years after that.
 
Daniel Nenni said:
Ditto. The latest update I have on EUV is there there are still pellicle problems. I will be at the TSMC Symposium in Taiwan next week and will get an update. Scott Jones is also at the imec symposium in Brussels. More info to follow.

TSMC will have 7nm in 2017 without EUV. My guess is that EUV 7nm is 1-2 years after that.
Click to expand...

Intel has the most in-depth grasp of EUV, more so than Samsung. TSMC might be caught up to same level as Intel. So they'll delay EUV until all issues are addressed, including dose, power, pellicle, defects.
 
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Daniel Nenni said:
I agree completely. I think Samsung will also have a Moore aggressive BEOL for 10nm than TSMC which will result in better density, but I think TSMC 7nm will more than make up for it. It will be interesting to compare the Apple and QCOM 10nm SoCs next year.
Click to expand...

I am tempted to compare Samsung 10nm (48 nm metal pitch) with Intel 14nm (52 nm metal pitch).
 
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For those that want to hear the latest on the record by ASML on the EUV HVM introduction at all their major customers at the 7 nm node (ASML calls TSMC's 5 nm sort of a 7 nm node),listen to the investor webcast at Jefferies TMT in Miami, by [FONT=Arial, Liberation Sans, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif]Craig de Young (VP Investor Relations ASML) from May 10-11.

The last 6 minutes or so of the 25 minute interview is on the EUV HVM introduction, where he states that ASML is now talking with the manufacturing 'guys' of all major clients about how many EUV production tools (NXE3400 I suppose)
they want in 2017 and 2018. Roughly expected to be 10-12 EUV tools in 2017 and about 24 or so in 2018, to enable HVM with EUV at 7 nm. These tools are about 115 M$/each Craig said.

ASML aims to have the availability of their EUV tools to about 90% toward end of year (still Sn droplet source issues mainly) and source power up to 250 watt at the customers fabs. But main focus is at increasing availability (now around 80%). So, it seems the main discussions that ASML presently has are with the production people at the main customers of ASML's EUV tools, and not so much anymore with the development people. Seems to correspond with the story on Samsung's visit early May at ASML, see the story from the Korean Times website.

Listen to the investor webcast by ASML's Craig de Young here: [/FONT]http://wsw.com/webcast/jeff96/asml/index.aspx

[FONT=Arial, Liberation Sans, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif]User nl.
[/FONT]




 
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