Samsung confirms the promises made late last year, when it said that mass production of the 3-nanometer chips would start in the first half of 2022. Now not only has the company reiterated its promise, but it has made it particular. In the summary document of the fiscal results for the first quarter of the year, Samsung specified that during the current quarter (from early April to June) it will start production of chips with a more advanced production process.
In October, Samsung said the 3-nanometer process would be divided into two stages. The ultimate goal is to turn to the GAA transistors that Seoul is working on from 2022 to overcome the current FinFETs, but the transition will be gradual and not immediate. For the first generation of the 3-nanometer (3GAE) chips, the Multi Bridge Channel FET or MBCFET transistors will be used and then, with the second generation scheduled for next year, the Gate-All-Around Field-Effect Transistors or GAAFET always at 3 nm.
Already with MBCFET the advantages should be obvious: thanks to voltages below 0.75 volts, compared to the 7-nanometer FinFET the power consumption should be reduced by 50%, the performance should go up by 30% and the size down by 45%. Samsung, however, will have to be good at improving the yield if it wants to pull back to itself the orders manufacturers such as Qualcomm that for the 4-nanometer chips would have preferred, according to rumors on the net, to knock on the door of the Taiwanese rivals of TSMC.
However, Samsung cannot complain about the economic contribution of the chip division. In fact, in the first quarter of 2022, out of an operating profit of 11.2 billion dollars, more than half (6.7 billion) came from semiconductors.
