3 Months after Samsung Started to Roll out 3-nm Chips

Samsung Electronics vice vhairman Lee Jae-yong (far left) is welcomed by employees on his way to the groundbreaking ceremony for a semiconductor R&D complex at the company's Giheung Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on Aug. 19.

Taiwan’s TSMC, the global No. 1 foundry player, will begin volume production of 3-nm chips in September. This came about three months after Samsung Electronics started 3-nm chip mass production for the first time in the world.

The two companies are expected to compete fiercely to secure big customers such as Qualcomm and Nvidia by increasing their 3-nm process yields fast.

Taiwanese media outlets such as the Commercial Times reported that TSMC will mass-produce semiconductors using a 3-nano process beginning from September. The first customer is Apple. TSMC is expected to roll out M2 Pro chips for the MacBook Pro as the first semiconductor manufactured using its 3-nm process.

Foreign media outlets predicted that in addition to the M2 Pro chip, TSMC is expected to produce the A17 Bionic chip for the iPhone 15 Pro series and the next-generation M3 chip for the MacBook Pro using its 3-nm process.

Previously, Taiwanese market research firm TrendForce said that Intel has recently canceled its contract with TSMC to produce its next-generation CPUs using the latter's 3-nm process and as a result, it may disrupt TSMC’s 3-nm mass production plan. However, Taiwanese media outlet DigiTimes predicted that the damage would not be as big as expected as TSMC has several large fabless clients including Apple for its 3-nm process.

TSMC had been ahead of Samsung Electronics until the 4-nm process, but gave the leadership to Samsung in the 3-nm process.

In particular, Samsung’s 3-nm process is characterized by the industry’s first application of the gate-all-around (GAA) structure. Samsung said the GAA technology can reduce power consumption by 45 percent and improve performance by 23 percent compared to the 5-nm fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) process.

TSMC’s 3-nm process is based on the FinFET process and is expected to improve speed by about 10 to 15 percent and reduce power consumption by 30 percent compared to the 5-nm process. This suggests that Samsung's 3-nm technology is superior to TSMC's, but the key is the production yield. Who emerges as the winner in the 3-nm foundry business depends on who achieves the desired production yield first.

TSMC is planning to continuously upgrade its 3-nm process and begin a second generation 3-nm process on a full scale after the middle of 2023. Samsung Electronics is planning to launch a second-generation GAA 3-nm process in 2024.

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