Samsung begins groundwork for P3 chip facility

Industry

Published: 10 Aug. 2020, 18:03 Updated: 10 Aug. 2020, 19:21

Samsung begins groundwork for P3 chip facility

A bird's-eye rendering of Samsung Electronics' P3 production line in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Samsung Electronics has begun the groundwork for its new chip facility in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, with the aim of laying the foundations as early as next month, according to the Pyeongtaek city government.

A source from the city government’s building permission division said Monday that the construction work for Samsung’s third chip production line, also known as P3, is being done at a faster pace than expected in response to anticipated growing demand for semiconductor products and chip-making contracts.

“Earthworks have been underway since last month after we provided building approval for the first floor of the P3 line in June,” said the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At this rate, they will start to lay the foundations and framework next month since Samsung is pushing the construction ahead of schedule.”

Samsung Electronics declined to comment on the details of the construction.

The P3 line in the Pyeongtaek complex is expected to focus on producing 5-nanometer chips using extreme ultraviolet lithography — a manufacturing process that can print nodes of less than 10 nanometers in width — alongside its memory chips including dynamic random-access memory and NAND flash chips.

If the construction goes as planned, the P3 line will be able to mass-produce chips by 2023.

The company will secure some 220,000 tons of industrial water from Paldang Dam in Gyeonggi under an agreement with the Korea Water Resources Corporation, local media reports said.

The chip maker plans to pour around 30 trillion won ($25 billion) into the new facility, the largest among all production lines there.

When completed, the new line will become Samsung’s biggest chip fabrication factory.

The project is part of the company's goal to become a world leader in logic chips and the foundry business by 2030. Logic chips generally refer to semiconductors that can process data like central processing units or graphics cards, as opposed to memory chips that store data. Chip foundries specialize in manufacturing semiconductors based on client contracts.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]