Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today unveiled its latest foundry innovations and outlined its vision for the AI era during Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) U.S., an annual event held at the company’s Device Solutions America headquarters in San Jose, California.

Under the theme “Empowering the AI Revolution,” Samsung announced its reinforced process technology roadmap, including two new cutting-edge nodes — SF2Z and SF4U — as well as its integrated Samsung AI Solutions platform harnessing the unique strengths of its Foundry, Memory and Advanced Package (AVP) businesses.

“At a time when numerous technologies are evolving around AI, the key to its implementation lies in high-performance, low-power semiconductors,” said Dr. Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “Alongside our proven GAA process optimized for AI chips, we plan to introduce integrated, co-packaged optics (CPO) technology for high-speed, low-power data processing, providing our customers with the one-stop AI solutions they need to thrive in this transformative era.”

The event featured presentations from distinguished industry thought leaders such as Arm CEO Rene Haas and Groq CEO Jonathan Ross, who took the stage to emphasize the robust partnerships with Samsung in tackling new AI challenges. Around 30 partner companies exhibited at booths, further highlighting the dynamic collaboration across the U.S. foundry ecosystem.

Empowering Customer AI Solutions With State-of-the-Art Process Technology Roadmap

Samsung announced two new process nodes, SF2Z and SF4U, reinforcing its leading-edge process technology roadmap.

The company’s latest 2nm process, SF2Z, incorporates optimized backside power delivery network (BSPDN) technology, which places power rails on the backside of the wafer to eliminate bottlenecks between the power and signal lines. Applying BSPDN technology to SF2Z not only enhances power, performance and area (PPA) compared to SF2, the first-generation 2nm node, but also significantly reduces voltage drop (IR drop), enhancing the performance of HPC designs. Mass production of SF2Z is slated for 2027.

SF4U, on the other hand, is a high-value 4nm variant that offers PPA improvements by incorporating optical shrink, with mass production scheduled for 2025.

Samsung reaffirmed that its preparations for SF1.4 (1.4nm) are progressing smoothly, with performance and yield targets on track for mass production in 2027. Emphasizing its ongoing commitment to advancing beyond Moore, Samsung is actively shaping future process technologies below 1.4nm through material and structural innovations.

Continuously Advancing GAA Maturity

With the onset of the AI era, structural advancements like gate-all-around (GAA) have become imperative to meet power and performance demands. At SFF, Samsung emphasized the maturity of its GAA technology, a key technological enabler in empowering AI.

Entering its third year of mass production, Samsung’s GAA process is consistently demonstrating continuous maturity in both yield and performance. Leveraging this accumulated GAA production experience, Samsung plans to mass produce its second-generation 3nm process (SF3) in the second half of this year and deliver GAA on its upcoming 2nm process.

Samsung’s GAA production has been steadily increasing since 2022 and is poised to substantially expand in the coming years.

Highlighting Cross-Company Collaborations for Turnkey Samsung AI Solutions

Another highlight was the unveiling of Samsung AI Solutions, a turnkey AI platform resulting from collaborative efforts across the company’s Foundry, Memory and AVP businesses.

Integrating the unique strengths of each business, Samsung is offering high-performance, low-power and high-bandwidth solutions that can be tailored to suit specific customer AI requirements.

Cross-company collaboration also streamlines supply chain management (SCM) and reduces time to market, enabling a remarkable 20% improvement in total turnaround time (TAT).

Samsung plans to introduce an all-in-one, CPO-integrated AI solution in 2027, aiming to provide customers with one-stop AI solutions.

Diversifying Customers and Applications for a Balanced Portfolio Across AI to Mainstream Tech

Samsung is also making significant strides in diversifying its customer base and application areas.

Over the past year, close customer collaborations have led to an increase in Samsung Foundry’s AI sales by 80%, reflecting its dedication to meeting evolving market demands.

In addition to its leading-edge process nodes, Samsung offers specialty and 8-inch wafer derivatives with continued PPA improvements and strong cost competitiveness. With this balanced technology portfolio, the company is catering to customer needs across automotive, medical, wearable and IoT applications.

Converging AI and Technology to Advance the Foundry Ecosystem Toward Collective Growth

Building on the momentum of the SFF event, Samsung will also be hosting its annual Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) Forum on June 13. Themed “AI: Exploring Possibilities and Future,” the forum will serve as a collaborative platform for ecosystem partners to discuss customizable technologies and solutions tailored for AI.

At this year’s forum, Siemens CEO Mike Ellow, AMD Vice President Bill En and Celestial AI CEO David Lazovsky are among the industry leaders who will present insightful perspectives on the future of chip and system design technologies.

The forum will also feature the inaugural Multi-Die Integration (MDI) Alliance workshop, following the launch of the MDI Alliance last year. Samsung will engage in extensive discussions with its alliance partners on mutual growth opportunities and specific collaborative initiatives, with a focus on 2.5D and 3D IC designs for comprehensive solutions development. These activities will further strengthen partnerships and foster a collective vision.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced its latest foundry technology innovations and business strategy at the 7^th annual Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) 2023.

Under the theme “Innovation Beyond Boundaries,” this year’s forum delved into Samsung Foundry’s mission to address customer needs in the artificial intelligence (AI) era through advanced semiconductor technology.

Over 700 guests, from customers and partners of Samsung Foundry, attended this year’s event, of which 38 companies hosted their own booths to share the latest technology trends in the foundry industry.

“Samsung Foundry has always met customer needs by being ahead of the technology innovation curve, and today, we are confident that our gate-all-around (GAA)-based advanced node technology will be instrumental in supporting the needs of our customers using AI applications,” said Dr. Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “Ensuring the success of our customers is the most central value to our foundry services.”

As part of its business strategy to solidify its competitiveness as a leading foundry service, Samsung Foundry today announced the following:

• Expanded applications of its 2-nanometer (nm) process and specialty process
• Expanded production capacity at its Pyeongtaek fab Line 3 (P3)
• Launched a new “Multi-Die Integration (MDI) Alliance” for next-generation packaging technology
• Continued progress in the foundry ecosystem with Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) partners

Leading the Industry With Expanded 2nm Applications and Specialty Processes

At the event, Samsung announced detailed plans for the mass production of its 2nm process, as well as performance levels.

The company will begin mass production of the 2nm process for mobile applications in 2025, then expand to HPC in 2026 and automotive in 2027. Samsung’s 2nm process (SF2) has shown a 12% increase in performance, a 25% increase in power efficiency and a 5% decrease in area, when compared to its 3nm process (SF3).

Mass production of SF1.4 will begin in 2027 as planned.

From 2025, Samsung will begin foundry services for 8-inch gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors targeting consumer, data center and automotive applications.

To secure the most cutting-edge technology in 6G, the 5nm Radio Frequency (RF) is also under development and will be available in the first half of 2025. Samsung’s 5nm RF process shows a 40% increase in power efficiency and a 50% decrease in area compared to the previous 14nm process.

In addition, the company will add automotive applications to its 8nm and 14nm RF, expanding beyond the mobile applications currently under mass production.

Stabilizing the Supply Chain and Meeting Customer Needs With Expanded Capacity

Under the “Shell-First” operation strategy that aims to better respond to customer demands, Samsung Foundry is maintaining its commitment to invest and build capacity by adding new manufacturing lines in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and Taylor, Texas. Current expansion plans will increase the company’s clean room capacity by 7.3 times by 2027 compared to 2021.

The company plans to begin mass production of foundry products for mobile and other applications at Pyeongtaek Line 3 in the second half of the year. Samsung is also focusing on increasing its manufacturing capacity in the United States. Construction of the new fab in Taylor is proceeding according to initial plans and is expected to finish by the end of the year, beginning operation in the second half of 2024.

Samsung will continue to expand its production base to Yongin, South Korea, to power the next generation of Samsung’s foundry services. Yongin is a nearby city located about 10km east of Samsung’s Hwaseong and Giheung campuses.

Leading the “Beyond Moore” Era With New Multi-Die Integration Alliance

In a bid to address the rapid growth in the chiplet market for mobile and HPC applications, Samsung is launching the MDI Alliance in collaboration with its partner companies as well as major players in memory, substrate packaging and testing.

The MDI Alliance leads innovation in stacking technology by forming a packaging technology ecosystem for 2.5D and 3D Heterogeneous Integration. Together with partners across the ecosystem, Samsung will provide a one-stop turnkey service to better support customers’ technological innovation.

Samsung plans to actively respond to customer and market needs by developing customized packaging solutions that are tailored to the individual needs of various applications including HPC and automotive.

Pushing Boundaries With Partners for Enhanced Fabless Support

Following the Samsung Foundry Forum, Samsung will be hosting the Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) Forum on June 28 under the theme “Accelerating the Speed of Innovation.”

Together with over a hundred partners across electronic design automation (EDA), design solution partners (DSP), outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT), cloud and IP, Samsung is promoting mutual growth of the foundry ecosystem to power the success of customers.

Samsung has long supported stronger collaboration between partners across the foundry ecosystem, advancing the boundaries of design infrastructure from 8-inch to the latest GAA process. Samsung and its 23 EDA partners now offer over 80 design tools and is also collaborating with 10 OSAT partners to develop 2.5D/3D packaging design solutions.

Samsung provides product design services to a variety of customers from startups to industry leaders through strong partnerships with nine DSP partners that have extensive expertise in Samsung Foundry processes, as well as nine Cloud partners.

Samsung has also secured a portfolio of over 4,500 key IPs from 50 global IP partners. Samsung plans to secure additional next-generation high-speed interface IPs for SF2, including LPDDR5x, HBM3P, PCIe Gen6 and 112G SerDes. Its long-term partnerships with leading global IP providers in their respective fields will help cater to customer needs in AI, HPC and automotive.

“Through extensive collaboration with our SAFE partners, Samsung Foundry is helping simplify designs that are becoming even more complex amid the application of the most advanced processes and new technologies such as heterogeneous integration,” said Jong-wook Kye, Executive Vice President and Head of Design Platform Development, Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to strive for consistent growth in the Samsung Foundry ecosystem in terms of both scale and quality.”

Samsung Electronics will be hosting the Samsung Foundry Forum 2023 in South Korea in July, and the event will expand to Europe and Asia later in the year to meet customers in each region.

With significant market growth in high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), 5/6G connectivity and automotive applications, demand for advanced semiconductors has increased dramatically, making innovation in semiconductor process technology critical to the business success of foundry customers. To that end, Samsung highlighted its commitment to bringing its most advanced process technology, 1.4-nanometer (nm), for mass production in 2027.

During the event, Samsung also outlined steps its Foundry Business is taking in order to meet customers’ needs, including: △foundry process technology innovation, △process technology optimization for each specific applications, △stable production capabilities and △customized services for customers.

▲ Dr. Siyoung Choi, president and head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics, is giving his keynote speech at Samsung Foundry Forum 2022.

“The technology development goal down to 1.4nm and foundry platforms specialized for each application, together with stable supply through consistent investment are all part of Samsung’s strategies to secure customers’ trust and support their success,” said Dr. Siyoung Choi, president and head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “Realizing every customer’s innovations with our partners has been at the core of our foundry service.”

Showcasing Samsung’s Advanced Node Roadmap Down to 1.4nm in 2027

With the company’s success of bringing the latest 3nm process technology to mass production, Samsung will be further enhancing gate-all-around (GAA) based technology and plans to introduce the 2nm process in 2025 and 1.4nm process in 2027.

While pioneering process technologies, Samsung is also accelerating the development of 2.5D/3D heterogeneous integration packaging technology to provide a total system solution in foundry services.

Through continuous innovation, its 3D packaging X-Cube with micro-bump interconnection will be ready for mass production in 2024, and bump-less X-Cube will be available in 2026.

▲ Dr. Siyoung Choi, president and head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics, is giving his keynote speech at Samsung Foundry Forum 2022.

Proportion of HPC, Automotive and 5G To Be More Than 50% by 2027

Samsung actively plans to target high-performance and low-power semiconductor markets such as HPC, automotive, 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT).

To better meet customers’ needs, customized and tailored process nodes were introduced during this year’s Foundry Forum. Samsung will enhance its GAA-based 3nm process support for HPC and mobile, while further diversifying the 4nm process specialized for HPC and automotive applications.

For automotive customers specifically, Samsung is currently providing embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) solutions based on 28nm technology. In order to support automotive-grade reliability, the company plans to further expand process nodes by launching 14nm eNVM solutions in 2024 and adding 8nm eNVM in the future. Samsung has been mass producing 8nm RF following 14nm RF, and 5nm RF is currently in development.

‘Shell-First’ Operation Strategy To Respond to Customer Needs in a Timely Manner

Samsung plans to expand its production capacity for the advanced nodes by more than three times by 2027 compared to this year.

Including the new fab under construction in Taylor, Texas, Samsung’s foundry manufacturing lines are currently in five locations: Giheung, Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek in Korea; and Austin and Taylor in the United States.

At the event, Samsung detailed its ‘Shell-First’ strategy for capacity investment, building cleanrooms first irrespective of market conditions. With cleanrooms readily available, fab equipment can be installed later and set up flexibly as needed in line with future demand. Through the new investment strategy, Samsung will be able to better respond to customers’ demands.

Investment plans in a new ‘Shell-First’ manufacturing line in Taylor, following the first line announced last year, as well as potential expansion of Samsung’s global semiconductor production network were also introduced.

Expanding the SAFE Ecosystem To Strengthen Customized Services

Following the ‘Samsung Foundry Forum,’ Samsung will hold the ‘SAFE Forum’ (Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem) on October 4th. New foundry technologies and strategies with ecosystem partners will be introduced encompassing areas such as Electronic Design Automation (EDA), IP, Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT), Design Solution Partner (DSP) and the Cloud.

In addition to 70 partner presentations, Samsung Design Platform team leaders will introduce the possibility of applying Samsung’s processes such as Design Technology Co-Optimization for GAA and 2.5D/3DIC.

As of 2022, Samsung provides more than 4,000 IPs with 56 partners, and is also cooperating with nine and 22 partners in the design solution and EDA, respectively. It also offers cloud services with nine partners and packaging services with 10 partners.

Along with its ecosystem partners, Samsung provides integrated services that support solutions from IC design to 2.5D/3D packages.

Through its robust SAFE ecosystem, Samsung plans to identify new fabless customers by strengthening customized services with improved performance, rapid delivery and price competitiveness, while actively attracting new customers such as hyperscalers and start-ups.

Starting in the United States (San Jose) on October 3rd, the ‘Samsung Foundry Forum’ will be sequentially held in Europe (Munich, Germany) on the 7th, Japan (Tokyo) on the 18th and Korea (Seoul) on the 20th, through which customized solutions for each region will be introduced. A recording of the event will be available online from the 21st for those who were unable to attend in person.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, held its 3^rd Annual Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE^TM) Forum 2021 virtually today.

With the theme of ‘Performance Platform 2.0: Innovation, Intelligence, Integration’, Samsung and its foundry ecosystem partners prepared 7 plenary talks and 76 technology sessions focused on three main topics: Gate-All-Around (GAA, Innovation), Artificial Intelligence (AI, Intelligence) and 2.5D/3D (Integration) technologies and the diverse design infrastructures required for high-performance applications.

“In the rapidly changing data-centric era, Samsung and its foundry partners have made great strides responding to increasing customers demand and to support their success by providing powerful solutions,” said Ryan Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of Foundry Design Platform Development at Samsung Electronics. “With the support of our SAFE program, Samsung will lead the realization of the vision ‘Performance Platform 2.0’.”

Starting with a keynote live streaming on November 17, attendees are able to explore a variety of tech sessions and engage with ecosystem partners through the virtual SAFE Forum platform for a month. To register for SAFE forum, please visit https://www.samsungfoundry.com.

SAFE 2021: Performance Platform 2.0

Samsung has concentrated on expanding its foundry ecosystem by focusing on IP, Electronic Design Automation (EDA), Cloud, Design Solution Partner (DSP) and Package solutions necessary for today’s data-driven era. Samsung introduced today its latest SAFE^TM program including:

• SAFE^TM-IP & EDA: Samsung and its foundry ecosystem have reserved over 3,600 IPs and 80 certified EDA tools respectively. These are developed and verified based on the high-standard certification program run by Samsung and participated in by our partners. In order to respond to the demands of high performance applications, Samsung’s foundry ecosystem has developed not only HPC-specific foundation IPs including standard cell libraries and memory compilers but also key IPs, such as over 100Gbps Serializer-Deserializer (SerDes) interface and 2.5D/3D multi-die integration solutions.
  
  With our EDA partners, Samsung has secured design tools optimized for its unique 3-nanometer (nm) GAA process technology and design methodology for integrating multiple dies in 2.5D/3D. Customers can also utilize AI- and machine learning-based EDA technology to systematically manage and analyze design data. To overcome the increasing difficulties of chip design and analysis, Samsung has strengthened cooperation with partners to develop EDA tools and related technologies, such as incorporating GPUs that can efficiently use computing resources required for chip verification.

• SAFE^TM-OSAT: Samsung plans to lead ‘beyond-Moore’ technologies by strengthening various package line-ups such as 2.5D/3D through the expansion of its SAFE-Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) ecosystem. The recent announcement of the co-development of Hybrid-Substrate Cube (H-Cube) solution, which offers efficient integration of 6 HBMs and cost benefit, is one of the successful examples of Samsung foundry’s collaboration with the OSAT community.

• SAFE^TM-Cloud Design Platform: SAFE^TM-CDP, the cloud-based one-stop design platform introduced last year, now supports a hybrid cloud function that can be linked to customers’ conventional design environments.

• SAFE^TM-DSP: Through the SAFE^TM-DSP ecosystem, Samsung and its global partners can actively support global fabless companies to implement their design ideas into custom product by utilizing cutting-edge process technologies as well as high-performance, low-power chip design knowledge.

[Quote from SAFE^TM Partner companies]

• Ansys, Ajei Gopal, CEO

“Today’s chips demand a full multiphysics approach, which requires engineering simulation. Ansys is proud to partner with Samsung to deliver a comprehensive multi-physics analysis flow for Samsung’s multi-die integration initiative. The benefits to joint customers, to the industry – and to the entire world – are tremendous. Semiconductors will drive innovations as varied as autonomous and electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, and mobile technologies, including 5G and beyond.”

• Arm, Simon Segars, CEO

“Our longstanding partnership with Samsung Foundry has been essential for growing business opportunities in many markets for our combined partner ecosystem. This close collaboration continues as we work together to optimize our Armv9 next-generation processors on Samsung Foundry’s leading-edge processes, including GAA, to deliver a best-in-class solution that is optimized for the world of today, and the technologies of tomorrow. Together, we are unlocking new opportunities across HPC, Automotive, AI, and IoT, while also managing rising complexities, enabling faster time to market.”

• Cadence, Lip-Bu Tan, CEO

“The Cadence Intelligent System Design strategy is very well-aligned with Samsung Foundry’s Performance Platform 2.0 with common themes of innovation, pervasive intelligence and integrated solutions. Together, we’re enabling customers to develop and deliver innovative, breakthrough products using Samsung’s most advanced process and packaging technologies, and we look forward to continuing our work with Samsung Foundry to accelerate design successes”

• Siemens EDA, A. J. Incorvaia, Senior Vice President

“The Samsung SAFE event provides an exceptionally valuable venue for the Samsung Foundry ecosystem to meet, share information and identify opportunities to fully leverage Samsung’s cutting-edge process technologies. Siemens EDA looks forward to this year’s Samsung SAFE event and the many opportunities it presents for collaborating with customers and partners to eliminate design obstacles and enhance silicon success.”

• Synopsys, Sassine Ghazi, president and COO

“We see exciting times ahead as software and chip technology come together to create world-changing new products,” said Sassine Ghazi, president and COO of Synopsys. “We have strong programs with Samsung Foundry on 3nm gate-all-around enablement, broad IP certification, AI-assisted chip design and 2.5/3D multi-die design to name just a few. We welcome the strong collaboration opportunities offered by the Samsung SAFE initiative.”

“H-Cube solution, which is jointly developed with Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) and Amkor Technology, is suited to high-performance semiconductors that need to integrate a large number of silicon dies,” said Moonsoo Kang, Senior Vice President and Head of Foundry Market Strategy Team at Samsung Electronics. “By expanding and enriching the foundry ecosystem, we will provide various package solutions to find a breakthrough in the challenges our customers are facing.”

“In today’s environment where system integration is increasingly required and substrate supplies are constrained, Samsung Foundry and Amkor Technology have successfully co-developed H-Cube to overcome these challenges,” said JinYoung Kim, Senior Vice President of Global R&D Center at Amkor Technology. “This development lowers barriers to entry in the HPC/AI market and demonstrates successful collaboration and partnership between the foundry and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) company.”

H-Cube Structure and Features

2.5D packaging enables logic chips or high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to be placed on top of a silicon interposer in a small form factor. Samsung’s H-Cube technology features a hybrid substrate combined with a fine-pitch substrate which is capable of fine bump connection, and a High-Density Interconnection (HDI) substrate, to implement large sizes into 2.5D packaging.

With the recent increase in specifications required in the HPC, AI and networking application market segments, large-area packaging is becoming important as the number and size of chips mounted in one package increases or high-bandwidth communication is required. For attachment and connection of silicon dies including the interposer, fine-pitch substrates are essential but prices rise significantly following an increase in size.

H-Cube Package Structure Concept

When integrating six or more HBMs, the difficulty in manufacturing the large-area substrate increases rapidly, resulting in decreased efficiency. Samsung solved this problem by applying a hybrid substrate structure in which HDI substrates that are easy to implement in large-area are overlapped under a high-end fine-pitch substrate.

By decreasing the pitch of solder ball, which electrically connects the chip and the substrate, by 35% compared to the conventional ball pitch, the size of fine-pitch substrate can be minimized, while adding HDI substrate (module PCB) under the fine-pitch substrate to secure connectivity with the system board.

In addition, to enhance the reliability of the H-Cube solution, Samsung applied its proprietary signal/power integrity analysis technology that can stably supply power while minimizing the signal loss or distortion when stacking multiple logic chips and HBMs.

Looking ahead, in cooperation with its ecosystem partners, Samsung will hold its 3^rd Annual ‘Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) Forum’ virtually on November 17 (PST).

For pre-registration on the SAFE forum, please visit https://www.samsungfoundry.com.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today unveiled plans for continuous process technology migration to 3- and 2-nanometer (nm) based on the company’s Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor structure at its 5^th annual Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) 2021.

With a theme of Adding One More Dimension, the multi-day virtual event is expected to draw over 2,000 global customers and partners. At this year’s event, Samsung will share its vision to bolster its leadership in the rapidly evolving foundry market by taking each respective part of foundry business to the next level: process technology, manufacturing operations and foundry services.

“We will increase our overall production capacity and lead the most advanced technologies while taking silicon scaling a step further and continuing technological innovation by application,” said Dr. Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics.” Amid further digitalization prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, our customers and partners will discover the limitless potential of silicon implementation for delivering the right technology at the right time.”

GAA Is Ready for Customers’ Adoption – 3nm MP in 2022, 2nm in 2025

With its enhanced power, performance and flexible design capability, Samsung’s unique GAA technology, Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MBCFET^TM), is essential for continuing process migration. Samsung’s first 3nm GAA process node utilizing MBCFET will allow up to 35 percent decrease in area, 30 percent higher performance or 50 percent lower power consumption compared to the 5nm process. In addition to power, performance and area (PPA) improvements, as its process maturity has increased, 3nm’s logic yield is approaching a similar level to the 4nm process, which is currently in mass production.

Samsung is scheduled to start producing its customers’ first 3nm-based chip designs in the first half of 2022, while its second generation of 3nm is expected in 2023. Newly added to Samsung’s technology roadmap, the 2nm process node with MBCFET is in the early stages of development with mass production in 2025.

FinFET for CIS, DDI, MCU – 17nm Specialty Process Technology Debuts

Samsung Foundry is continuously improving its FinFET process technology to support specialty products with cost-effective and application-specific competitiveness. A good example of this is the company’s 17nm FinFET process node. In addition to the intrinsic benefits afforded by FinFET, the process node has excellent performance and power efficiency leveraging a 3D transistor architecture. Consequently, Samsung’s 17nm FinFET provides up to 43 percent decrease in area, 39 percent higher performance or a 49 percent increase in power efficiency compared to the 28nm process.

Additionally, Samsung is advancing its 14nm process in order to support 3.3V high voltage or flash-type embedded MRAM (eMRAM) which enables increased write speed and density. It will be a great option for applications such as micro controller units (MCUs), IoT and wearables. Samsung’s 8nm radio frequency (RF) platform is expected to expand the company’s leadership in the 5G semiconductor market from sub-6GHz to mmWave applications.

Looking ahead, in cooperation with its ecosystem partners, Samsung Foundry’s SAFE Forum will be held virtually in November 2021.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced the launch of ‘Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) Cloud Design Platform (CDP)’ for fabless customers, in collaboration with Rescale, a leader in high performance computing (HPC) applications in the cloud.

The key highlight feature of Samsung foundry’s first SAFE Cloud Design Platform is that it provides a virtual environment to design chips in the cloud. By accessing this platform through the cloud, customers can immediately start designing at anytime and anywhere.

To maximize customers’ design convenience, SAFE CDP supports a very secure design condition that has verified with cloud companies. In addition, customers can utilize various Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools offered by multiple vendors such as Ansys, Cadence, Mentor, a Siemens business and Synopsys.

Gaonchips, one of Samsung Foundry’s Design Solution Partners, has already tested the SAFE CDP on its 14nm automotive project using Cadence’s Innovus Implementation System and has successfully reduced its design run-time by 30 percent compared to current on-premise execution.

“We expect that our innovative design platform co-developed in partnership with Rescale will play a crucial role for the fabless industry as it evolves into efficient cloud-based design environment,” said Jae-hong Park, executive vice president of Foundry Design Platform Development at Samsung Electronics. “We remain committed to our efforts to bolster the SAFE ecosystem and will continue to collaborate with our SAFE partners on developing innovative programs that will help deliver ease of use and greater design efficiency for customers.”

As designs move to advanced nodes and as transistor scaling occurs at each node, chip designs become more complex and computing power required for these designs have increased significantly, resulting in greater overhead time and cost to customers.

By adopting CDP, customers can reduce the burden of building their own server infrastructure, while flexibly utilizing additional computing power required for chip design and verification. Furthermore, they can take full advantage of Samsung’s diverse foundry ecosystem which includes EDA, intellectual property (IP), cloud, and design services offered by reputable partners.

“We are excited to be a partner of Samsung Foundry SAFE ecosystem,” said Joris Poort, founder and CEO of Rescale. “We share a common vision of a global design cloud platform that efficiently supports a broad ecosystem of technologies and services for EDA customers worldwide.”

To actively respond to the latest technology trends and lower the design barrier for developing competitive SoCs, Samsung launched the SAFE program in early 2018 and held the first SAFE Forum in the United States last year. More information on SAFE can be found here.

About Rescale
Rescale is the leader in enterprise big compute in the cloud. Rescale’s ScaleX^® multi-cloud platform, built on the most powerful high-performance computing infrastructure, seamlessly matches software applications with the best architecture in the cloud to run complex data processing and simulations. Rescale partners with the largest cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Service, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, providing services enterprise in automotive, aerospace, defense, and semiconductor industry. For more information on Rescale, visit www.rescale.com.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today held the first Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) Forum 2019 in the United States. By sharing the latest technology trends and strengthening cooperation within the foundry ecosystem, Samsung showcased its strong dedication to customers.

SAFE Forum is designed to provide an opportunity for SAFE partner companies to directly meet with customers to discuss comprehensive design technology infrastructure, including electronic design automation (EDA), intellectual property (IP), cloud, design service, and packaging, which is critical to efficiently developing and manufacturing semiconductor products.

While the Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) has served as a channel to present Samsung’s technology roadmap and leadership to customers, the newly held SAFE Forum is distinctive in that it allows its partners to engage deeper and more efficient collaboration within Samsung’s foundry ecosystem by directly communicating in detail with customers on their own design support solutions proven by Samsung.

“SAFE program has grown in quality over the past two years; it has expanded the number of competitive partnerships and support of flexible product design for customers as well as bolstered the relationship between our partners, customers, and Samsung foundry,” said Jae-hong Park, executive vice president of Foundry Design Platform Development at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue our efforts in enhancing accessibility to enable customers to more easily utilize Samsung’s excellent foundry solutions.”

As the latest system-on-chip (SoC) product requires more sophisticated features in a smaller surface size than before, the number of considerations in IC design optimization has increased exponentially: performance, power, security, design, density, etc.

To actively respond to these IC design trends and lower the design barrier for developing competitive SoCs, Samsung Electronics launched the SAFE program in early 2018.

Under the slogan “Partnering for a bold silicon future”, details on the latest global IC design trends as well as benefits of the efficient easy-to-use platform design infrastructure were introduced.

With more than 400 industry experts attending the first SAFE Forum, 12 detailed sessions were given by around 30 speakers from 15 partner companies, focusing on emerging high-growth applications, including high-performing computer (HPC), internet-of-things (IoT), and automotive. Attendees also had a chance to discover the optimal solution for implementing their new ideas into chips through 40 partner booths at the venue.

Samsung attracted more than 200 industry experts from fabless companies and foundry partners, and 16 partner booths displayed advanced foundry technology trends, a significant increase in both numbers compared to last year, representing a more solid customer base of Samsung Foundry as well as greater collaboration in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

Since the EMEA semiconductor market is in demand across a wide range of applications including automotive, consumer, network, and internet-of things (IoT), Samsung introduced various specialty technologies, such as FD-SOI, radio frequency (RF), and embedded memory along with comprehensive portfolio of foundry process nodes.

Samsung Electronics showcased its state-of-the-art foundry platforms that bring together essential technical elements for new-age applications, including 5G, IoT, automotive, and high performance computing (HPC), while expanding its design solution partners to improve global customers’ access to Samsung’s foundry solutions.

“It is a great honor to host our global foundry forum with increasing number of attendees every year. The forum has helped us work closely with our customers and strengthen Samsung’s foundry ecosystem,” said Dr. ES Jung, president and head of foundry business at Samsung Electronics, in the keynote speech. “We will strive to get more customer trust and be the best partner possible to prepare for the future with.”

Given the robustness of the European automotive industry, the foundry platform for automotive semiconductor market is drawing considerable attention, and is expected to rapidly grow to address the increasing demand in the autonomous and electric vehicle market.

Samsung is currently producing several automotive semiconductor products such as driving assistant and infotainment systems, mainly based on its 28-nanometer (nm) FD-SOI and 14nm process nodes. In order to respond to increasing customer inquiries, Samsung plans to expand its automotive process nodes to 8nm in near future.

Samsung is also focusing on functional safety and component reliability, which are critically important in the automotive industry, since any failure could cause serious consequences of accident or injury.

Samsung has already proven its ability to design IPs to meet the required automotive standard, and received the ISO 26262 certification for functional safety in automotive components from TÜV Rheinland. Complying with reliability standard AEC-Q100 and IATF 16969 quality management system, it is also preparing for automotive semiconductor production.

Meanwhile, in cooperation with ecosystem partners, Samsung will host its first SAFE (Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem) Forum on Oct 17 in San Jose, to introduce Samsung’s IP, Electronic Design Automation (EDA), and packaging solutions in detail for foundry partners.