Samsung Electronics expands new strategy for automotive process solutions

Samsung Electronics recently held the 2023 European Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) and launched its advanced and extensive automotive process solutions, from the most advanced 2-nanometer to 8-inch traditional processes.

Samsung Electronics, together with its customers and Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) partners, showcased the latest technology trends and its business strategies tailored for the European market.

"Samsung Foundry is driving innovation in next-generation solutions to build an expanded product portfolio to meet the growing needs of automotive customers, especially in the era of electric vehicles." said Dr. Siyoung Choi, head of foundry business at Samsung Electronics. “We are providing customers with exceptional service across solutions including power semiconductors, microcontrollers and advanced artificial intelligence chips for autonomous driving.”

Since participating in IAA Mobility 2023 for the first time in September, Samsung Electronics is strengthening its participation and cooperation in special processes with automotive customers in the European market, further solidifying its position as the industry's leading foundry partner.

Unlock new applications with the industry’s most advanced eMRAM

To meet the needs of the latest developments in the automotive market, Samsung is developing the industry's first 5nm eMRAM for next-generation automotive technology. eMRAM is a next-generation memory semiconductor for automotive applications that enables high read and write speeds as well as excellent thermal resistance.

Since developing and mass-marketing the industry's first 28nm FD-SOI-based eMRAM in 2019, Samsung Electronics has been developing a 14nm process based on the AEC-Q100 Grade 1 FinFET process. Samsung foundry plans to add 14nm and 8nm processes by 2024 to expand its eMRAM product portfolio. By 2026, 5 nanometers by 2027.

Compared with the 14nm process, Samsung's 8nm eMRAM has the potential to increase density by 30% and speed by 33%.

Address the market with automotive process solutions from cutting-edge to legacy

The company announced its advanced process roadmap, emphasizing that it plans to complete mass production preparations for the 2nm process for automotive applications by 2026.

Samsung Electronics is also enhancing its ability to meet customer needs by expanding its 8-inch BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) process product portfolio. The BCD process combines the advantages of three different process technologies on one chip: bipolar (B), CMOS (C) and DMOS (D), and is most commonly used in the production of power semiconductors.

Samsung Electronics plans to expand its existing 130nm automotive BCD process to 90nm by 2025. Compared with the 130nm process, the 90nm BCD process is expected to reduce the chip area by 20%.

By using deep trench isolation (DTI) technology to reduce the distance between each transistor and maximize the performance of power semiconductors, Samsung foundries will be able to apply higher voltages of 120V (instead of 70V) to a wider range of devices. application. This will enable us to be ready to deliver a process development kit (PDK) enabling 120V to 130nm BCD processes by 2025.

Leading “Beyond Moore” Innovation with Advanced Packaging Alliance

Samsung has established the Multi-die Integration (MDI) Alliance by collaborating with its SAFE partners and key players in memory, packaging substrates and test.

As part of an industry-wide partnership with 20 partners, Samsung is leading the development of 2.5D and 3D packaging solutions tailored for applications ranging from automotive to high-performance computing (HPC).