Samsung to ship 10nm SoCs in 2016

Samsung plans to make 7nm chips using EUV in late 2018.

Samsung aims to ship before the end of the year SoCs made in a 10nm FinFET process, beating rivals such as Intel and TSMC. The news comes as Samsung is projected to fall behind this year in the business of making chips for other companies and is reeling from a decision to take its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone off the market.

"We are entering mass production, and in 2016 we believe we will be the first shipping in the 10nm node," said Hong Hao, a senior vice president for marketing and business development in Samsung's foundry group.

The so-called 10LPE process uses triple-patterning lithography to deliver up to a 30 percent area shrink, 27 percent higher performance or 40 percent lower power than its 14nm process, Samsung said in a press statement. First devices to use the 10nm chips should appear early next year with a follow-on 10LPP process ramping late next year, it added.

Samsung took a similar approach at 14nm, delivering a fast-to-market, first-generation FinFET process followed by an optimized version. It also aims to continue at 10nm its practice of introducing over time additional variants of the node optimized for greater performance, and lower power and cost.

As part of the news, Samsung revealed it will skip the 7nm node with immersion lithography planned by rivals TSMC and Globalfoundries. Instead it aims to have in production a 7nm process with extreme ultraviolet lithography in late 2018, as much as a year before current industry estimates say EUV systems will be ready for volume production.

To read the full article, go to EE Times.