Samsung to build a plant to produce 7-nanometer chips

Already this week Samsung will lay the first stone in the foundation of the new plant, where 7-nanometer chips will be manufactured. Thus, the company expects to close the gap with the Taiwanese TSMC, which has already begun test production solutions for more subtle standards.

What is known?

According to Korean publications, the investment in the project will be about 5.6 billion dollars. Samsung's 7LPP process technology uses the ultra-violet EUV lithography. The company will purchase at least ten sets of equipment from the Netherlands supplier (most likely ASML), each will cost almost $ 140 million. When the construction of the factory in the Korean city of Hwaseong (Gyeonggi-do province) is over, it is not known, but the transition to new technology is expected in 2019-2020.

At the end of last year Samsung has mastered 8-nanometer production with the help of "traditional" optical DUV-scanners. EUV uses light sources with a shorter wavelength, which allows further reducing the size of transistors in the crystal. By 2020, the Korean giant wants to develop 6-, 5-and 4-nanometer process technology.

Dragon Heart

According to the latest data, the next flagship Qualcomm processor - Snapdragon 855 - will be one of the first 7-nanometer chips for mobile devices. This means that after Snapdragon 835 and 845, which Samsung released, the company will have to change supplier to give all orders to TSMC. Koreans simply will not have time to start a new plant.

On the other hand, Samsung somehow mentioned that Qualcomm is going to use their 8-nanometer technology (it's cheaper and not much worse than 7-nm). It is possible that Snapdragon 855 will be produced by two companies, as it was with Apple A9.

Source: Korea Herald