Samsung's 2nm Yield Problems Remain Unresolved

[Nomad76]

Samsung's foundry plans have again hit a major setback. The company notified staff at its Taylor, Texas facility that it was temporarily removing workers from the site because it is still experiencing challenges with 2 nm semiconductor yields, delaying mass production timelines from late 2024 to 2026. The Taylor site had been anticipated as the flagship facility for Samsung's sub-4 nm production, allowing access to potential customers near the facility. While Samsung has moved rapidly in terms of process development, its yields for advanced nodes have outstripped them, the company's yields for sub-3 nm processes hover around 50%, with Gate-All-Around (GAA) technology witnessing yields of only 10-20%, significantly lower than neighboring competitor TSMC's 60-70% for corresponding nodes.

The yield gaps that the company is experiencing have exacerbated the gap in market share, with TSMC capturing 62.3% of the global foundry market share in Q2 versus Samsung's 11.5%. The company is struggling to gain share despite efforts by Chairman Lee Jae-yong - including visits to component suppliers ASML, and Zeiss - and these yields put at risk as much as 9 trillion won in U.S. CHIP Act potential subsidies that are dependent upon operational milestones.



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[Daven]

Reading this story around the internet, I see the same verbiage, ‘Samsung has to remove workers because yields are low.’

I’m not sure what that means.

 

[R00kie]

Reading this story around the internet, I see the same verbiage, ‘Samsung has to remove workers because yields are low.’

I’m not sure what that means.

And that would be an absolutely stupid thing to do, who’s gonna resolve those issues then?

 

[phanbuey]

Reading this story around the internet, I see the same verbiage, ‘Samsung has to remove workers because yields are low.’

I’m not sure what that means.

If i was to guess, it probably means they arent producing enough to cover the salaries of the workers, and have no ability to increase production in the next 2 years.

 

[R0H1T]

and these yields put at risk as much as 9 trillion won in U.S. CHIP Act potential subsidies that are dependent upon operational milestones.

Wait wait wait, did the US sell California for this

 

[Nomad76]

Reading this story around the internet, I see the same verbiage, ‘Samsung has to remove workers because yields are low.’

I’m not sure what that means.

Most likely, it means Samsung's South Korean workers who were at one point detached overseas in Texas fab, now return to South Korea. There are no words about layoffs.

 

[bug]

Reading this story around the internet, I see the same verbiage, ‘Samsung has to remove workers because yields are low.’

I’m not sure what that means.

People were hired to deal with incoming manufacturing. Process struggles, there will be no manufacturing.

 

[Darc Requiem]

Wait wait wait, did the US sell California for this

The won isn't nearly as valuable as the US dollar. 9 trillion won is around 6.5 billion usd.

 

[Wirko]

Wait wait wait, did the US sell California for this

Won is not a verb here, although that would seem logical.

 

[Minus Infinity]

I think we are at the point that Scamsung will never be a viable competitor to TSMC. They should sell the factories to people that know what they are doing. Intel has a much better chance of getting it right than Scamsung.

 

[Tomorrow]

Anyone surprised by this?

Samsung announces their new nodes super early and then these nodes wither with abysmal yields for years until they either achieve decent yields for mass production or they dont and die off.

 

[Operandi]

Reading this story around the internet, I see the same verbiage, ‘Samsung has to remove workers because yields are low.’

I’m not sure what that means.

I read it to mean their process is performing so badly they are basically wasting sand as Tech Jesus would say and they have no idea how to fix it so they might as well send people home.