SAN FRANCISCO — South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. confirmed that it continues to expect to put extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography into initial production with its 7nm Low Power Plus (LPP) process in the second half of next year.
Samsung (Seoul) also announced the addition of an 11nm LPP process utilizing FinFET technology to its process technology offerings, saying it would deliver up to 15 percent higher performance and up to 10 percent reduction in chip area compared to its 14nm LPP process while consuming the same amount of power.
EUV, the long-heralded successor to 193nm lithography that has been delayed numerous times over the past decade, finally appears to be poised for prime time with leading edge chip makers Intel, TSMC, Samsung and Globalfoundries all targeting production deployment over the next 18 months.
The results of a survey of 75 semiconductor luminaries released Monday (Sept. 11) indicated that 75 percent now believe that EUV will be adopted in high-volume manufacturing before 2021. Just 1 percent said EUV will never be embraced, down from 6 percent last year and a whopping 35 percent in 2014.
Samsung said it has processed close to 200,000 wafers with EUV lithography technology since 2014 and has recently seen visible improvement with EUV technology, such as achieving 80 percent yield for 256 Mb SRAM.
Samsung said Monday that it expects that its 10nm FinFET process for mobile smartphone processors and its 11nm LPP process would bring differentiation and value to mid- and high-end phones.
—Dylan McGrath is the editor-in-chief of EE Times.
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