Amid increasing competition from Intel, Samsung Foundry has decided to rebrand its second-generation 3nm process technology, formerly known as SF3. The future node has been renamed SF2 to denote the 2nm production process. This was reported by knowledgeable sources. However, Samsung Foundry has not yet officially confirmed this renaming.
The source claims that last year, Samsung Electronics signed a contract with Samsung Foundry for 2nd generation 3nm production. But later the contract was revised to reflect the changes in the name of the process. These changes allegedly took place earlier this year.
It is noted that the renaming is part of Samsung’s plans to simplify the process nomenclature. But it is also likely to help the South Korean giant better compete with Intel Foundry, whose 2-nm production node called Intel 20A is expected to be available later this year.
Samsung announced its process roadmap back in 2022, listing a number of nodes that will be deployed by 2027. According to the roadmap, it will target mass production of 2-nm process technology (SF2P) by 2025 and 1.4nm (SF1.4) by 2027. The company also said it plans to increase its production capacity for advanced nodes by more than 3 times by 2027.
However, earlier this year, Samsung informed its customers about changes in its roadmap and renaming the SF3 process to SF2. At this time, there is no information on whether there are any real changes in the architecture of the new node, other than rebranding. That is, customers are likely to receive the same technology offered by the former SF3 node.
Samsung is expected to release its new process based on SF2 in the second half of this year. From what is known now, SF2 uses Gate-all-around (GAA) or Multi-Bridge-Channel Field Effect Transistors (MBCFETs), but does not have backside chip power-down (BSPDN) technology, unlike Intel’s 20A. BSPDN supposedly improves transistor performance, reduces power consumption, increases logic transistor density, and eliminates interference between data and power circuits, potentially giving the Intel 20A a significant advantage. Samsung is still developing this technology.
Source: techspot