Samsung and TSMC are reportedly struggling to improve their 3nm yield. According to the Korean media, the two foundry giants are stuck at a yield rate of 50-60 percent. This is proving to be a roadblock to getting big manufacturing contracts from major semiconductor companies. Firms like Qualcomm and Samsung System LSI (semiconductor design division) want a minimum 3nm yield rate of 70 percent.
TSMC has begun 3nm mass production but is still struggling with its yield
Samsung and TSMC have taken two different routes to 3nm chip production. The latter is sticking to the older FinFET transistor architecture. The former, on the other hand, is switching to a more advanced GAA transistor architecture, which is said to offer better performance and power efficiency. While Samsung was the first to announce 3nm production, it has yet to apply the new process node for manufacturing smartphone chips.
TSMC, meanwhile, manufactured Apple’s A17 chip for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max using its 3nm process. Unfortunately, the new iPhones have a heating issue, and many are blaming the Taiwanese firm’s seemingly unfinished 3nm production technology. There are rumors that the company failed to control or regulate heat generation, causing the devices to get abnormally hot in regular usage.
While it’s unclear how much truth is in this claim, TSMC’s struggles with the 3nm yield rate appear real. The firm is reportedly failing to reach a 60 percent yield rate. That means more than 40 chips out of every 100 manufactured are going to waste. With such a low yield, the company won’t be able to attract big orders as there are risks of capacity shortage and a last-minute rush.
The same goes for Samsung as well. There have been reports of the company surpassing a 60 percent 3nm yield, but those weren’t completely true. The 3nm chips it supplied to the Chinese fabless semiconductor firm ASIC were missing the SRAM that goes into the logic chip. The Korean firm’s fully-baked 3nm chips still have a yield rate of less than 60 percent, perhaps closer to the 50 percent mark.
The 3nm era might be around for a long time
The Apple A17 is the industry’s first commercially available 3nm smartphone chip. While the major players of the industry, including Samsung and TSMC, are aiming to upgrade to 2nm solutions in 2025, the 3nm era could still be around long after that. Both of these firms have several 3nm derivatives in the pipeline. Their yield struggles suggest we are still some time away from these chips being universal.
“The 3-nano process, which is currently the cutting-edge process, appears to be one of the nodes that will last the longest as numerous derivative processes are accumulated,” a semiconductor industry official said. They added that the extent of improvement brought by 2nm solutions is smaller compared to 3nm. As such, the “demand for 3nm-based chips will continue longer than expected.”
2023-10-04 15:06:20