Samsung Starts Mass Production of 10nm Chips

Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics has announced that it has become the first in the semiconductor industry to start mass production of chips using a 10-nanometre process. Samsung’s new System-on-Chip (SoC) products with 10nm FinFET technology are expected to hit the market in early-2017, though the company is yet to reveal for what specific purpose, with only a vague reference to “digital devices”.

“Samsung’s new 10nm FinFET process (10LPE) adopts an advanced 3D transistor structure with additional enhancements in both process technology and design enablement compared to its 14nm predecessor,” the company announced today (17th October), “allowing up to 30-percent increase in area efficiency with 27-percent higher performance or 40-percent lower power consumption. In order to overcome scaling limitations, cutting edge techniques such as triple-patterning to allow bi-directional routing are also used to retain design and routing flexibility from prior nodes.”

The new semiconductors use Samsung’s first-generation 10nm process (10LPE), but it intends to follow that up with its second generation process (10LPP), which boosts performance, during the second half of 2017.

“The industry’s first mass production of 10nm FinFET technology demonstrates our leadership in advanced process technology,” Jong Shik Yoon, Executive Vice President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics, said. “We will continue our efforts to innovate scaling technologies and provide differentiated total solutions to our customers.”