Samsung began manufacturing chips using the 3nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) process last month and today held a ceremony to celebrate the first shipment of those chips.
About 100 people attended the ceremony, including company executives and employees, CEOs of companies seeking to use the new technology, and Lee Chang-yang, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy, who vowed to support the country’s semiconductor ecosystem.
Left to right: Samsung Electronics CEO, Minister Lee Chang-yang, and CEO of Samsung’s Foundry Division
Samsung Electronics began researching GAA transistors in the early 2000s and experimenting with the design in 2017. It is now ready for serial production of chips using the new process.
Compared to the FinFET design, which has been the standard for several years, the Gate-All-Around design allows transistors to carry more current while remaining relatively small.
According to Samsung, the 3nm GAA chips will use 45% less power, be 23% faster, and be 16% smaller than a similar 5nm FinFET chip. This is for the first generation of the GAA process, by the way, Gen 2 will further improve these metrics.
The Evolution of FET Transistors – Samsung uses the MBCFET design for its 3nm chips
Samsung doesn’t say what kind of chips were stocked for the first shipment, but the company plans to develop smartphone chipsets using the 3nm GAA design.
TSMC will also start mass production of 3nm chips later this year, although they will continue to use the FinFET design – the company will switch to GAAFET with the move to a 2nm node.
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