Thursday, October 5th 2023
Samsung and TSMC Reportedly Struggling with 3 nm Yields
According to Korean business news publication ChosunBiz, both Samsung and TSMC are struggling with their 3 nm node yields. The two companies have different approaches to their 3 nm nodes, with Samsung using GAA FET (Gate All Around), whereas TSMC is continuing with its FinFET technology. That said, TSMC has at least five known 3 nm nodes, of which two should be in production by now, assuming N3E has proved to be reliable enough to kick off. Samsung on the other hand has three known 3 nm nodes, with only one in production so far, called 3GAE.
ChosunBiz reports that neither company is getting the kind of yields that you'd expect from a node that should have been in volume production for around a year by now, with Samsung apparently being somewhat better than TSMC. At 60 and 50 percent respectively, neither Samsung nor TSMC are anywhere near decent yields. Anything below 70 percent is considered very poor and even the 60 percent claim in Samsungs case, is apparently limited to some kind of Chinese mining ASIC and doesn't include the SRAM you find in most modern processors. ChosunBiz also mentions a source familiar with Samsung's foundry business who mentions a yield closer to 50 percent for the company. The same source also mentions that Samsung needs to reach at least 70 percent yield to be able to attract major customers to its 3 nm node.
Sources:
ChosunBiz, via @Tech_Reve (on X)
ChosunBiz reports that neither company is getting the kind of yields that you'd expect from a node that should have been in volume production for around a year by now, with Samsung apparently being somewhat better than TSMC. At 60 and 50 percent respectively, neither Samsung nor TSMC are anywhere near decent yields. Anything below 70 percent is considered very poor and even the 60 percent claim in Samsungs case, is apparently limited to some kind of Chinese mining ASIC and doesn't include the SRAM you find in most modern processors. ChosunBiz also mentions a source familiar with Samsung's foundry business who mentions a yield closer to 50 percent for the company. The same source also mentions that Samsung needs to reach at least 70 percent yield to be able to attract major customers to its 3 nm node.
81 Comments on Samsung and TSMC Reportedly Struggling with 3 nm Yields
Remember, transistors in a CPU deal mostly with logic. You can't have a CPU core that will flip, for example, all but the 7th bit. It would be less than useless.
>AMD uses "nm" four times in the 7000 series press release from 8/22. It's in the first paragraph. 5nm and 6nm chips from TSMC.
www.amd.com/en/press-releases/2022-08-29-amd-launches-ryzen-7000-series-desktop-processors-zen-4-architecture-the
>Alder lake was an Intel designed, 7nm TSMC part. Subsequent Intel parts are Intel design with chip production, packaging from Intel and TSMC.
>A whole yuck-ton of spoofed Intel articles can be found with zero mention of "nm" specifics. Odd..
>So, like, They're all lying to us? Why?
Why is everyone so afraid gate measurement in current processors is in actual nanometers and were going to angstrom next?