Samsung and GlobalFoundries unite to broaden 14nm FinFET technology
The strategic collaboration is aimed at enabling the firms to share technology and allow global capacity for 14nm FinFET fabrication in the U.S. and Korea
Samsung Electronics and GlobalFoundries have forged a new strategic collaboration to deliver global capacity for 14 nanometre (nm) FinFET process technology.
For the first time, one of the industry's most advanced 14nm FinFET technologies will be available at both Samsung and GlobalFoundries, giving customers the assurance of supply that can only come from true design compatibility at multiple sources across the globe.
The new collaboration will leverage the companies' semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, with volume production at Samsung's fabs in Hwaseong, Korea and Austin, Texas, as well as GlobalFoundries' fab in Saratoga, New York.
Developed by Samsung and licensed to GlobalFoundries, the 14nm FinFET process is based on a technology platform that has already gained traction for high-volume, power-efficient system-on-chip (SoC) designs.
The platform taps the benefits of three-dimensional, fully depleted FinFET transistors to overcome the limitations of planar transistor technology, enabling up to 20 percent higher speed, 35 percent less power and 15 percent area scaling over industry 20nm planar technology.
The platform is claimed to be the first FinFET technology in the foundry industry to provide true area scaling from 20nm.
The technology features a smaller contacted gate pitch for higher logic packing density and smaller SRAM bitcells to meet the increasing demand for memory content in advanced SoCs. At the same time, it is said to still leverage the interconnect scheme from 20nm to offer the benefits of FinFET technology with reduced risk and the fastest time-to-market.
Through this multi-year exclusive technology license, process design kits (PDKs) are available now, allowing customers to start designing with models, design rule manuals, and technology files that have been developed based on silicon results from 14nm FinFET test chips.
Mass production for the 14nm FinFET technology will begin at the end of 2014."This unprecedented collaboration will result in a global capacity footprint for 14nm FinFET technology that provides AMD with enhanced capabilities to bring our innovative IP into silicon on leading-edge technologies," says Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Global Business Units at AMD. "The work that GlobalFoundries and Samsung are doing together will help AMD deliver our next generation of groundbreaking products with new levels of processing and graphics capabilities to devices ranging from low-power mobile devices, to next-generation dense servers to high-performance embedded solutions."
"This strategic collaboration extends the value proposition of a single GDSII multi-sourcing to the FinFET nodes. With this true multi-source platform, Samsung and GlobalFoundries have made it easy for fabless semiconductor companies to access FinFET technology and increase first-time silicon success," notes Stephen Woo, president of System LSI business, device solutions, Samsung Electronics Division. "Through this collaboration, we are advancing the foundry business and support model to satisfy what customers have been asking for."
"Today's announcement is further proof of the importance of collaboration to enable continued innovation in semiconductor manufacturing," says GlobalFoundries CEO Sanjay Jha. "With this industry-first alignment of 14nm FinFET production capabilities, we can offer greater choice and flexibility to the world's leading fabless semiconductor companies, while helping the fabless industry to maintain its leadership in the mobile device market."
