Uses EUV Lithography to DRAM Production
Samsung Electronics has surprised the world once again by starting mass production of third-generation 10-nm (1z-nm) LPDDR5 products using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography for the first time in the semiconductor industry. By expanding an EUV process used only for the foundry business to the memory sector, it showed the possibility of mass-producing single-digit nanometer DRAMs.
Samsung Electronics announced on Aug. 30 that it has started mass-producing 16 Gb LPDDR5 mobile DRAMs for the first time in the world at its second line in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. This product featured the largest-ever capacity and the fastest-ever speed at the same time.
In February, Samsung Electronics started mass-producing 16 GB LPDDR5 DRAMs with the biggest capacity ever using its second-generation 10-nm (1y) process. In just six months, the company further strengthened its premium mobile DRAM lineup to include the next-generation 1z process.
SK Hynix, which has the second largest market share in the DRAM sector after Samsung Electronics, is planning to apply EUV to 1a (4th generation) products currently being developed for mass-production in 2021. SK Hynix is about six months to a year late compared to Samsung Electronics.
Samsung’s latest product realizes 6,400Mb/s operation speed, which is 16 percent faster than a 12 Gb mobile DRAM (LPDDR5•5,500Mb/s) for flagship smartphones. A smartphone with a 16 GB package can process 51.2 GB per second equivalent to about 10 full HD films.
In addition, a 16 Gb LPDDR5 mobile DRAM can be produced with only eight chips, making a package 30 percent thinner than the previous version with eight 12 Gb chips and four 8 Gb chips. As such, a 16 Gb LPDDR5 mobile DRAM can provide optimal solutions for products that have a lot of parts such as multi-camera phones and 5G handsets and products focusing on thickness such as foldable phones.
Samsung Electronics is planning to preempt the 5G flagship smartphone market by providing next-generation 1z 16 GB mobile DRAMs to global smartphone makers. It is also planning to expand the new product’s use to electronic equipment for vehicles by securing high temperature reliability.
Industry insiders predict that Samsung Electronics will gradually increase the application range of EUV processes starting with this memory product. Even though the price of EUV equipment is hundreds of billions of won per unit, it has the advantage of reducing production processes as it can draw fine-process circuit lines faster than before. Although the current lithography equipment requires several patterning processes to draw circuit lines, EUV equipment requires one patterning process or two.
On top of that, the EUV process is expected to help memory chip producers overcome the 10-nm limit in fabricating DRAMs. In fact, up to the 20-nano range, the number of front digits changed after "x-y-z." Yet in the 10-nano range, technology upgrading is extended to “x-y-z-a.”