In global chip race, it comes down to the technology

3D rendering of a computer chip [THE JOONGANG PHOTO]

Major chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), are vying to produce high-performing chips based on new manufacturing processes to stay competitive amid a downturn in the semiconductor industry.

The most advanced chipmaking technique is the 3-nanometer process, with Samsung Electronics becoming the first company worldwide to mass produce 3-nanometer chips last June.

Samsung Electronics and TSMC are moving to the next step, pouring billions of dollars into producing chips with higher densities and energy efficiency.

"Production yields for first-generation 3-nanometer chips have stabilized," Jeong Ki-bong, vice president of Samsung Electronics foundry division, said during a recent conference call. Second-generation 3-nanometer chipmaking is underway, he added.

Samsung Electronics will produce second-generation 3-nanometer chips next year, 2-nanometer chips by 2025 and 1.4-nanometer chips by 2027. TSMC plans to produce enhanced 3-nanometer chips, N3E chips, by the latter half of next year and 2-nanometer chips by 2025.

The competitive edge for the company lies in the fact that it was the first to implement Gate-All-Around (GAA) field effect transistor (FET), a new transistor technology, in chip manufacturing.

The GAA technique enhances the transistor density of chips and improves energy efficiency. The design allows for more expanded and flexible current flows across channels at transistor gates compared to the widely used finFET technique.

TSMC used the finFET technique for 3-nanometer chips but will use GAA technology to produce 2-nanometer chips.

TSMC, which started 3-nanometer chip production six months later than Samsung Electronics, introduced a roadmap for advanced chip manufacturing processes at the 2023 North America Technology Symposium last Wednesday.

The chipmaker showcased N3P, an enhanced 3-nanometer process for better power, performance and density, N3X, a process tailored for high-performance computing applications and N3AEs, chips for automotive applications.

The company said it signed some big-name clients, such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, AMD and MediaTek.

Intel announced plans to manufacture 3-nanometer chips by the latter half of this year, 2-nanometer chips next year and 1.8-nanometer chips by 2025. The company partnered with ARM, which has over 90 percent of the market share in mobile application processor design.

The competition to produce advanced chips will come down to each company's technology. Despite the worst first quarterly earnings report since 2009 amid weak electronics demand worldwide, Samsung Electronics remains optimistic.

"We plan to enhance our competitive edge in the chip industry by investing more into wafers research and development," Samsung Electronics device solutions CEO Kyung Kye-hyun said during a recent conference call.

The chipmaker invested a record-breaking 6.58 trillion won ($4.9 billion) in the first quarter into R&D and another record-breaking 10.7 trillion won into chipmaking infrastructure.

TSMC plans to invest about 8.7 trillion won in R&D this year, a 20 percent increase. The company will establish a new R&D center with some 8,000 employees to develop advanced chips at the Hsinchu Science Park by the second quarter of this year.

BY KIM SU-MIN [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]