2024 Foundry Forum featured integration, advancement strategy

Guest Reports

Published: 28 Jun. 2024, 10:04

2024 Foundry Forum featured integration, advancement strategy

Siyoung Choi, president and general manager of Samsung’s foundry business, presenting his keynote speech at the 2024 Samsung Foundry Forum in Silicon Valley. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Samsung Electronics unveiled its foundry strategy to position itself at the forefront of the AI era during the 2024 Samsung Foundry Forum in Silicon Valley on June 12.

The electronics giant has been proactive on the integration of AI, with its "Bespoke” line of personalized home appliances mounted with the technology since 2022. Samsung is continuing with the installation this year with its "Bespoke AI” strategy of actively incorporating the technology in its broad range of appliances for enhanced user convenience.

The 2024 Bespoke AI Windless System Air Conditioner Infinite Line is equipped with radar sensors that allow AI to adjust the temperature or conserve energy according to user activity. The Bespoke AI Steam robot vacuum cleaner operates according to AI learning systems to detect and avoid objects as well as map out the owner's home for thorough cleaning.

At the center of Samsung’s undertakings in the era of AI is its commitment to semiconductor technology. As demand for AI grows greater and more complex, continuous advancement in semiconductor technology to facilitate data processing is essential to expanding the possibilities of AI.

The annual Samsung Foundry Forum provides an opportunity for the company to showcase and reinforce its technological leadership in semiconductor and AI technology by sharing key innovations, strengthening foundry partnerships and expanding industry insights.

The forum was held at Samsung’s North American headquarters in San Jose, California, attended by industry specialists such as ARM Holdings CEO Rene Haas and Groq CEO Jonathan Ross.

Under the theme “Empowering the AI Revolution,” the company presented its strategy to realize consumers’ AI ideas, which incorporates not only its foundry technology but also integrates its memory and packaging technology to maximize efficiency.

[SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Dr. Siyoung Choi, president and head of the foundry business at Samsung Electronics, stated during his keynote speech, “As all technology makes a revolutionary shift toward AI, high-capacity, low-power semiconductors for AI are of the utmost importance.”

He added, “Samsung Electronics will provide a one-stop AI solution for consumers through its GAA (gate-all-around) process technology optimized for AI semiconductors and co-packaged optics technology to compute data at high speeds while minimizing power consumption.”

Two new process nodes were unveiled at this year’s event — the SF2Z and SF4U — building upon the previous foundry process roadmap.

The 2-nanometer SF2Z incorporates Back Side Power Delivery Network (BSPDN) technology, and is expected to be available by 2027. With BSPDN, the power delivery network is relocated to the back side of the silicon wafer, eliminating bottlenecks between the power and signal lines of a semiconductor.

The SF2Z will improve designs for high-performance computing by enhancing power, performance and area (PPA) while reducing the voltage drop between two ends of a conductor, which destabilizes the current flow.

The 4-nanometer SF4U process node, meanwhile, will offer further PPA improvements via optical shrink, with mass production slated for 2025.

Samsung was the first chipmaker to adopt GAA transistor technology in 3-nanometer circuits and plans to launch the second generation in the latter half of this year. The company will capitalize on its experience mass-producing GAA transistors, which has provided it with a leg up over competitors, with its 2-nanometer products. GAA mass production has continued to grow since 2022, and market trends indicate that it will continue to expand concurrently with rising demand.

With its sights set on mass production of 1.4-nanometer nodes by 2027, Samsung announced that it has achieved its target performance capacity and yield. With its “Beyond Moore” initiative, aiming to surpass the so-called “Moore’s Law” observation that chip capacity doubles every two years, the chipmaker seeks to revolutionize materials and structures to even go beyond 1.4 nanometers, honing its competitive edge to take the lead in future innovation.

Cooperation among Samsung’s foundry, memory and advanced package businesses has also offered an advantage. Cross-affiliate collaboration allows Samsung to develop a comprehensive AI solution defined by high performance, low power consumption and wide bandwidth, effectively simplifying the customer supply chain and accelerating the introduction of new products into the market.

Fabless companies incorporating Samsung’s comprehensive AI solution can shorten the time they spend from development to production by 20 percent compared to separately employing foundry, memory and package providers.

To boost the foundry department’s competitive advantage, Samsung is diversifying its portfolio of customers as well as major application areas such as AI, high-performance computing, automotive electronics and edge computing.

Strengthening cooperative customer relations in the rapidly developing AI field has yielded an 80 percent increase in AI sales. A new portfolio for the eight-inch foundry and legacy process has improved PPA and cost-competitiveness, broadening the diverse range of customer needs the company can meet.

[SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Coming immediately on the heels of the forum was Samsung’s 2024 Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem Forum on June 13 under the theme “AI: Exploring Possibilities and Future,” encouraging partner companies to come together to present and share customer-focused technologies and solutions in the age of AI. Notable attendees included Siemens CEO Mike Ellow, Vice President of AMD Bill En and Celestial AI CEO David Lazovsky, who discussed the chips required in the AI era and the direction of future developments in systems design technology.

The forum also featured the first workshop of the “Multi-Die Integration Alliance” — a council formed the year before on chiplet integration in combinations to produce a high-performance package.

Samsung Electronics and its alliance partners intend to strengthen their collaborative efforts through extensive discussions to specify cooperative methods and extensive solutions for 2.5D and 3D semiconductor design.

BY KIM YEONSOO [kim.yeonsoo1@joongang.co.kr]

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