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Samsung made a pair of announcements today almost the future of its foundry manufacturing, and they imply things are going adequately well for the visitor. First, the company is announcing a new "11nm" process, which information technology claims will deliver "upwardly to 15 per centum higher performance and upwardly to 10 percent chip area reduction with the same ability consumption." It's also the starting time prime number nosotros've used for a process node in a very long time; y'all have to go dorsum to the 2um node for the last ane. (This terminal bit isn't exactly chosen out in Samsung's marketing materials).

Practically, this appears to exist a reaction to TSMC's plans for a 12nm node (Samsung's is amend, see, considering information technology'southward a smaller number). TSMC's "12nm" node is a respin of its 16nm, simply with better functioning and ability consumption characteristics. Samsung'southward 11nm node appears to exist something similar. Adjustments similar this, and the unabridged concept of tiresome, footstep-wise incremental improvements, are a further polishing of a technique TSMC began using nearly 20 years agone. Back in the early 2000s, the visitor began offering one-half-nodes that essentially divide the typical "node" improvement in one-half. Instead of shifting from 180nm to 130nm, TSMC'southward offered a 150nm half-node. Betwixt 130nm and 90nm there was a 110nm node; between 90nm and 65nm, an 80nm node, betwixt 65nm and 45nm, a 55nm, etc.

Samsung Fab Line

The term half-node has fallen out of favor as the foundries and fabs have begun using other means to designate these improvements. Intel uses 14nm, 14nm+, and 14nm++, while Samsung has been using LPE (Low Ability Early) and LPP (Low Power Plus). In both cases, the intent is to point that improvements accept been made to the process, and hopefully entice manufacturers that might non have been persuaded by the early on improvements to 14nm compared with 28nm to step up to the later manufacturing process every bit the benefits become more substantial. 11nm will be gear up in the first one-half of 2018 and is expected to complement Samsung's 10nm process node. Samsung's 11nm node besides sounds quite similar to its 14nm LPU node, albeit with improved expanse.

EUV Supposedly Ramping Upwardly

Initial EUV production is supposedly on-track for the second one-half of 2018 and the 7nm node, with initial production targeted for the dorsum half of 2018. That'south the same thing Samsung has said previously and it comes with the aforementioned qualifiers — initial production doesn't mean high volumes, and it doesn't mean aircraft product.

Samsung's own advice on EUV is however shot through with qualifiers. The visitor states that: "Since 2014, Samsung has processed close to 200,000 wafers with EUV lithography technology and, building on its experience, has recently seen visible results in process development such as achieving 80 pct yield for 256 megabit (Mb) SRAM (static random-admission retention)."

If you think about information technology, "candy," is an odd verb to utilise compared with "manufactured." To hit that impressive-looking 200,000 figure, Samsung appears to exist counting any wafer information technology ever ran through a test car, regardless of whether the last product was usable or what, exactly, was being tested. In a context this wide, "processed" is a meaningless metric. Hitting an lxxx-percentage yield on 256Mb SRAM (32MB) is interesting, merely we don't know how long the company has been reaching that target, how regularly or easily it hits it, or how many wafers it can expose per 60 minutes at the 80-percent yield. Ramping upward exposure power and reducing wafer exposure fourth dimension have been twin anchors around EUV's neck for the past few years.

Nosotros've discussed the manufacturing issues facing EUV and the tiresome ramp of progress at several points in the past, so check our previous coverage for more details. GlobalFoundries has said it plans to introduce EUV in high volume manufacturing at some point in 2019, and Samsung'south own timeline is loosely uniform with that besides. Don't be surprised if this tech still slips a year or two; if companies are still predicting EUV volition get in past 2022 come 2020 it'll just be a continuation of the trend these past 17 years.