To Start Volume Production in 2021
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are speeding up development of next-generation DRAMs to be produced with micro-fabrication technology. They are endeavoring to overcome physical limitations by speeding up big data processing and reducing chip sizes.
Samsung Electronics is planning to bring in EUV lithography equipment in the second half of 2020 to mass-produce 4th-generation 10-nm-level (1a) 16Gb DDR5 DRAMs.
In March 2020, the company succeeded in developing 4th-generation 10-nano level (1a) DRAM based on EUV lithography. However, it takes more time to mass-produce the product as the company needs to improve production yield and develop production technologies.
Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong recently flew to the Netherlands to secure EUV equipment. As Dutch company ASML is currently the sole producer of EUV equipment, it is important to secure equipment ahead of competitors.
SK hynix is also in the middle of setting up a clean room for an EUV line at its M16 plant on Icheon Campus in Gyeonggi Province. It is planning to finish the construction of the clean room by the end of 2020 and bring in EUV equipment for production of 4th-generation 10-nm DRAMs in 2021.
SK hynix is aiming to simultaneously develop and mass-produce 4th-generation DRAM by 2021, as it succeeded in mass-producing third-generation 10-nm DRAMs in the third quarter of 2020. The chipmaker has already secured part of the equipment for this purpose.