Samsung Foundry presents its roadmap for the next few years for the production of chips for smartphones. The company shows its big ambitions after being regularly criticized for its Exynos chips.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra // Source: Frandroid
Samsung is a major manufacturer of chips for smartphones. The South Korean company notably produces its own Exynos SoCs. However, the latter have long suffered from comparisons with Qualcomm’s Snpadragon, both in terms of performance and energy efficiency. To the point that there was obvious irritation in the ranks of consumers in Europe, where Galaxy S smartphones sported Exynos, while the rest of the world benefited from models under Snapdragon.
That changed at the beginning of 2023: the European Galaxy S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra were equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, so as not to make anyone jealous. Yes, but here it is: Qualcomm trusted Taiwanese TSMC to manufacture the SD8 Gen 2 and the same is said to be the case with the future Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is expected to be announced in late October. This is not necessarily a good thing for Samsung.
In fact, the South Korean giant has made chips for Qualcomm in the past and may not want to lose this key customer for good. In general, in order to restore a good brand image and reduce dependence on third-party suppliers, Samsung may want to regain some momentum in the smartphone chip market.
The Samsung Foundry roadmap
With that in mind, it’s interesting to follow the company’s announcements during the recent Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF). The company presented its roadmap for the next few years.
Therefore, we recall that in 2025 Samsung Foundry will start mass production of chips for smartphones using the 2nm process. The company promises an improvement in performance and energy efficiency of 12% and 25%, respectively, compared to the 3nm process. As an indication, remember that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is engraved in 4nm and the 8 Gen 3 should be in 3nm.
Increase production
Samsung plans to start mass production of SoCs in the 1.4 nm process in 2027. In addition, the company is building a new production unit in the USA, in Texas. This, combined with the opening of a new production line at the Pyeontaek plant in South Korea, will allow for 7.3 times the production yield, according to Samsung calculations.
Finally, Samsung says it will continue to rely on the GAA (gate-all-around) technology introduced with the 3nm process. It uses nanosheets instead of nanowires to conduct the electric current. In particular, this makes it possible to adjust the width of the channels in order to improve the use of energy. However, this technique “will be crucial to meet the needs of our customers using artificial intelligence applications,” explains Samsung.
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