TSMC held a 3nm mass production and factory expansion ceremony in Tainan Science Park on December 29th, officially announcing the launch of 3nm mass production. Although Samsung has started N3 (3nm) process chip manufacturing as early as half a year ago, it seems that the production yield has seriously declined due to the adoption of GAA.
Of course, Samsung did not sit still. Previously, the industry said that it had cooperated with IBM, Silicon Frontline Technology and other companies to improve the 3nm yield rate, hoping to win some orders for Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen3 for its own mobile phones.
According to TSMC’s own statement, the yield rate of its 3nm and 5nm is basically the same at the beginning of its advent. In contrast, when Samsung’s 3nm GAA was first put into production, the yield rate was only a poor 20%, and the scrap rate was ridiculously high. However, there has been news recently that Samsung’s 3nm yield rate has been greatly improved, and it is now “close to perfection.”
According to Korea Daily Economic News, a Samsung executive said in an interview that compared with the previous yield problem, Samsung’s first-generation 3nm process yield is close to perfect, and the second-generation 3nm chip technology is also improving. Expand quickly. In addition, the previously rumored 90% TSMC 3nm yield rate is too exaggerated, and it may actually be more than 50%.
TSMC has started mass production of 3nm FinFET chips at the end of last year. According to a report published by Business Next, according to experts who specialize in semiconductor research, TSMC’s 3nm process yield at that time was estimated to be about 60-70%, and in some cases it could exceed 70%.
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Korean media reports further pointed out that after both Samsung and TSMC have entered the era of 3nm process, the future 3nm process will become the mainstream of the foundry market. Therefore, it is expected that by 2025, the output value of the 3nm process market will be as high as US$25.5 billion, surpassing the estimated US$19.3 billion output value of the 5nm process at that time.
According to the survey data from the market research unit TrendForce, in the third quarter of 2022, in the global foundry market, TSMC still ranks first with a 53.4% market share, while Samsung, which ranks second, only has a 16.4% market share. Therefore, under fierce market competition, the 3nm process will also become the key to the main competition between the two companies in the future.
