Foundry Business
Samsung Electronics announced that the company will set up the foundry business division and claim second place in market shares by the end of the year based on the division.
Samsung Electronics held the “Samsung Foundry Forum Korea 2017” at Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul, Korea on November 11 to take the wrap off its state-of-the-art foundry solutions to Korean customers and partners. Foundry is the business that takes design drawings from fabless companies that do semiconductor design only without a production line, and produces semiconductors.
The Samsung Foundry Forum which was held for the second time this year following one in the US in May, was attended by about 130 Korean semiconductor fabless and information technology (IT) companies.
At this forum, Samsung Electronics introduced the status of 14-nanometer and 10-nanometer processes which are currently the main production process. The global semiconductor giant also announced a wide range of advanced process roadmaps from 8 to 4 nanometers, design infrastructure and the direction of support for 8-inch (inch) foundry customers.
Samsung Electronics says that its mass-producing 10-nanometer process, the first in the industry, is rolling out products based on a stable yield, and building a seven-nanometer mass production facility to which extreme ultraviolet (EUV) is applied for customer support. Furthermore, the company is planning to release 4-nanometer products by 2020.
Samsung Electronics’ foundry factories are located in Giheung (S1) of Gyeonggi Province, Korea and Austin (S2), Texas, and the S3 Line is expected to be completed and begin to roll out products by the end of this year in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, Korea. In particular, the S3 Line will run 10-, 8-, and 7-nanometer processes. On the day, Samsung Electronics received a lot of attention from Korean customers by introducing the “8-inch foundry” service which has secured dozens of kinds of products since its full-scale inception last year.
Samsung Electronics is planning to elevate its market share ranking, which is 4th now to second place this year. As Samsung Electronics can specialize its technology competitiveness ahead of its competitors’, the company disclosed its aspiration to overtake Taiwan’s TSMC, the industry leader in the future.
As of the end of last year, the foundry industry leader was Taiwan's TSMC, which was followed by Taiwan's UMC and the US’s GLOBALFOUNDRIES. The Samsung Electronics Foundry Division is enjoying rapid growth. According to IHS Market, a market research firm, Samsung's foundry business sales stood at US$4.518 billion last year. This is a surge of 78.6 percent from the previous year's US$2.529 billion.