Samsung: although it lags behind TSMC at present, it is still confident of obtaining 3nm orders from major customers, and has carried out 2/1.4nm process cooperation negotiations with customers.

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen OC_Formula for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com October 25 news, Samsung Electronics wafer foundry department CTO Zheng Jitai in the "Semiconductor Expo 2023" entitled "the latest technological trends in the wafer foundry industry" speech.

Due to the successive loss of Qualcomm, NVIDIA and other major customers, Samsung Electronics 3nm contract manufacturing business, although mass production earlier, but has lagged behind TSMC.

He pointed out that the customer's choice to place an order is a long-term process that takes about three years, and he believes that the unfavorable situation in winning over customers will improve in the future.

"in the contract manufacturing business, from the customer's point of view, 'stability' is the most important". "it is not easy to adopt new technology from the beginning." We often say that there is a marriage relationship between the contract manufacturer and the customer. this fully reflects the closeness of the business structure. "

If something goes wrong with the chipmaker, customers will suffer, too, so they have to be cautious, he explained. However, he said the company is confident of winning big customers for its below 3nm process.

GAA process is a sustainable technology in the future, but it is difficult to further improve FinFET. We are talking with key customers about the upcoming 2nm, 1.4nm and other processes.

As for the competition from Chinese mainland manufacturers, he said that in the field of advanced packaging (reprocessing), the competition among Samsung, TSMC and Intel would continue.

It is easier for Chinese companies to develop back-end processes than front-end processes, but it is often difficult for new players to compete unless they have a large number of customers to get feedback (such as TSMC) or IDM that designs and manufactures (such as Samsung or Intel).