Samsung Electronics announced on Thursday that it will begin mass production using the 3GAE (early 3nm class gate all-rounder) process this quarter (that is, in the coming weeks). This marks not only the industry’s first 3nm-class manufacturing technology, but also the first node to use ring gate field-effect transistors (GAAFETs).
“THIS IS THE WORLD’S FIRST MASS-PRODUCED GAA 3 NANOMETER PROCESS THAT WILL IMPROVE ITS TECHNOLOGICAL LEADERSHIP,” SAMSUNG WROTE IN A NOTE.
Samsung Foundry’s 3GAE process technology is the first to use a GAA transistor (Samsung calls it a multi-bridge trench field-effect transistor (MBCFET)) process.
Samsung officially launched its 3GAE and 3GAP process nodes about three years ago. When the company described a 256Mb GAAFET SRAM chip produced using its 3GAE technology, it came up with a lot of data.
SAMSUNG SAYS THE PROCESS WILL DELIVER A 30 PERCENT PERFORMANCE BOOST, A 50 PERCENT POWER REDUCTION, AND UP TO 80 PERCENT TRANSISTOR DENSITY, INCLUDING A MIX OF LOGIC AND SRAM TRANSISTORS. HOWEVER, HOW THE ACTUAL COMBINATION OF SAMSUNG’S PERFORMANCE AND POWER CONSUMPTION WILL WORK REMAINS TO BE SEEN.
Theoretically, Gaafet has many advantages over Finfeets currently in use, such as significantly reducing transistor leakage current (i.e., reducing power consumption) and tapping into the potential strength of transistor performance, which means higher yields and improved capacity. In addition, according to a recent report from Applied Materials, GAAFETs can also reduce the area by 20 to 30 percent.
Of course, Samsung’s 3GAE is just an “early” 3nm-class manufacturing technology, and 3GAE will be primarily used by Samsung LSI (Samsung’s chip development division) and possibly one or two of SF’s other alpha customers. If the yield and performance of these products are in line with expectations, it will not be long before we can see a large number of new products shipped.