It is reported that the yield rate of Samsung’s 3nm process has been greatly improved, and the second generation of 3nm process is already under development.

IT House News on January 10th, 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 declined seriously 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, hoping to win some orders for Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen3 for its own mobile phones.

According to TSMC’s own statement, the yield rates at the beginning of its 3nm and 5nm are basically the same. 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% yield rate of TSMC’s 3nm is too exaggerated, and it may actually be more than 50%.

IT Home has reported that 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 the description of experts specializing 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 3nm process will become the mainstream of the wafer foundry market in the future. 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 market share of 53.4%, and Samsung, which ranks second, only has a market share of 16.4%. Therefore, under fierce market competition, the 3nm process will also become the key to the main competition between the two companies in the future.