Samsung has experienced a significant downturn in its semiconductor chip foundry sector during the last few years. With the exception of Samsung’s System LSI business, which produces Exynos chips, no well-known semiconductor company has utilized the 3nm and more recent 4nm manufacturing nodes from Samsung Foundry. The business is still making progress in developing more advanced semiconductor process nodes, such as 2nm GAA Samsung Technology nodes.
In 2024, Samsung is expected to begin producing large quantities of 3nm and 2nm semiconductors for the second generation.
Samsung Foundry is creating next-generation Gate All Around (GAA) technology, which will be utilized in the business’s 2nm process technology, according to a recent article from Business Korea. Based on this technology, 2nm semiconductor chips will go into mass manufacturing the following year. According to reports, the South Korean company will deliver a presentation at the VLSI Symposium 2024 expo on third-generation GAA technology, which will be utilized for 2nm circuits. Hawaii, USA, will host this exhibition from June 16–20, 2024.
One of the top three international semiconductor conferences, the VLSI Symposium discusses cutting edge innovations in the industry. The International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) and the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) are the other two premier conferences for semiconductor chips.
What benefit does GAA offer?
A novel kind of transistor architecture called GAA increases power efficiency and current flow. It was first made available with Samsung Foundry’s first-generation 3nm manufacturing node. But no other chip company, not even AMD, Apple, MediaTek, Nvidia, or Qualcomm, has used it. It is anticipated that Samsung’s System LSI business would be the first to produce next-generation Exynos chips for phones and smartwatches using Samsung Foundry’s 3nm process.
First-generation 3nm GAA chips showed a 16% area reduction, a 23% performance boost, and a 45% higher power efficiency when compared to chips produced using Samsung Foundry’s 5nm technology. It is predicted that the second-generation 3nm technology will provide a 35% reduction in chip area, a 30% boost in performance, and a 50% improvement in power efficiency. It is claimed that third-generation GAA, which will be utilized in 2nm circuits, will provide 50% more performance and 50% less area.
In its advanced process nodes, TSMC, Samsung’s main rival, has not yet incorporated Gate All Around technology. In the latter part of this year, Samsung intends to begin mass-producing second-generation 3nm GAA chips (such as those for the Galaxy S25). GAA is anticipated to be used by TSMC and Intel in their upcoming 2nm technologies.
A few weeks after disclosing revenue projections, Samsung has already released its first quarter financial results. The company reported that while its profit increased by nearly 10 times (933%) over the previous year, its revenue increased by 13% over the first quarter of 2023.
Samsung’s earnings more than doubles in the first quarter of 2024 due to robust memory and smartphone sales.
Samsung’s operating profit in the first quarter of 2024 was KRW 6.61 trillion ($4.78 billion), compared to revenue of KRW 71.92 trillion ($52.08 billion). That is a 13% increase in revenue and a 933% increase in profit over Q1 2023 data. Higher sales of memory chips and smartphones are the cause of this enormous profit increase. Thanks to an increase in memory chip pricing, its semiconductor memory chip business earned a profit after almost a year of losses. During the quarter, the company’s TV, smartphone, and home appliance divisions all reported increased earnings.
