Qualcomm’s choice of Samsung as its wafer service supplier will likely be of great help in the Korean chip maker’s plan to stake out its foundry contract chip-making business as another cash cow following its huge successes in memory chip business.
Built based on 7LPP EUV process technology, Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets will offer a smaller chip footprint. It allows up to a 40% increase in area efficiency with 10% higher performance compared to chips produced on predecessor 10nm FinFET technology.
The smaller but higher performance chips will allow electronic device OEMs to enjoy more space for design and batteries.
The improvements in chip circuitry process and advanced chip design of LPP will also allow the chip to consume low power, which bring significant improvements in battery life. It has up to 35% lower power consumption compared to chips produced on 10nm FinFET technology.
When compared to Samsung’s 10nm FinFET technology, the 7LPP EUV technology also greatly reduces the process complexity with less process steps and better yield.
7nm LPP EUV process was first introduced in May, 2017. It is the first semiconductor process technology to use EUV lithography technology.
Using EUV light sources, the shortest wavelength commercially available in the market, EUV lithography deployment promises to break through the barriers of Moore’s law facing chip makers, paving the new way for commercial implementation of a next generation of single digit semiconductor technology generations.
“We are excited to lead the 5G mobile industry together with Samsung,” said RK Chunduru, senior vice president, supply chain and procurement, Qualcomm Technologies. “Using 7nm LPP EUV, our new generation of Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets will take advantage of the process improvements and advanced chip design to improve the user experience of future devices.”
“We are pleased to continue to expand our foundry relationship with Qualcomm Technologies in 5G technologies using our EUV process technology,” said Charlie Bae, executive vice president of foundry sales and marketing team at Samsung Electronics. “This collaboration is an important milestone for our foundry business as it signifies confidence in Samsung’s leading process technology”