Quick updates on the impact of Ukraine war. Global exports of semiconductors to Russia have reportedly slumped by 90% due to export controls. And U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has reportedly threatened to “shut down” China’s SMIC foundry if it is found to be supplying chips to Russia. “We will shut them down and we can, because almost every chip in the world and in China is made using U.S. equipment and software,” she said. Moving to new fab updates, Taiwan’s GlobalWafers will reportedly invest $5 billion on a new plant in Sherman, Texas, to make 300-millimeter silicon wafers, switching to the United States after a failed investment on Germany’s Siltronic.
Samsung’s 3-nm GAA in production
Samsung Electronics has announced that it has started initial production of its 3-nanometer process node applying its Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture called Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MBCFET), enabling a supply voltage reduction and a higher drive current capability. Initial applications are targeting high performance, low power computing, with plans to expand to mobile processors. According to the company, Samsung’s proprietary technology – which utilizes nanosheets with wider channels – allows higher performance and greater energy efficiency compared to GAA technologies using nanowires with narrower channels. However, channel width in Samsung’s 3nm GAA technology can be adjusted to obtain various power/performance combinations. Compared to 5nm process, Samsung claims that the first-generation 3nm process can reduce power consumption by up to 45%, improve performance by 23% and reduce area by 16%; the second-generation 3nm process is expected to reduce power consumption by up to 50%, improve performance by 30% and reduce area by 35%.
Photo: Business Wire
