Microchips are the backbone of the operation of all intelligent electronic machines and devices, and this industry has become a tool to maximize influence in the global market. Whoever excels at it in the 21st century will be able to determine the course of many things around the world.
The chip industry giant in the world
Today, no company in the world manufactures electronic chips with precision, more than those made by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, known as TSMC, which controls more than 50% of the world’s chip production, followed by the South Korean company Samsung. in second place, with a share exceeding its percentage, the 18 percent.
TSMC and Samsung are the only two companies capable of producing the most advanced chips in the world, which are manufactured in technologies of less than 5 nanometers, with clear progress in favor of TSMC in this area. Samsung is two years behind TSMC in 4nm chip technology and one year in 3nm technology.
The importance of nanometric precision
Nanometer precision is essential in the manufacturing process of electronic chips, because the process of reducing nanometer precision is a difficult and expensive task. The cost of changing from one manufacturing precision to another requires a complete renewal of the equipment, and that is what costs millions of dollars, but is more difficult due to the many problems and errors associated with this process.
In conclusion, the smaller the nanoscale manufacturing precision, the smaller the chip size, the higher its performance and the lower its power consumption, even if it comes with higher transistor densities.
TSMC risks losing control
It looks like the reality of TSMC’s control over the microchip industry may change in the coming years as Samsung seeks to pull the rug out from under the Taiwanese company, something the Korean company has already acknowledged there. a few days ago. , according to the head of the company’s hardware solutions sector, Kai.Hyun Kyung, with his statement that Samsung now has an advantage and can overtake TSMC in five years.
This optimism comes from Samsung based on the fact that it was able to use the Gate All Around-FET technology known as GAA-FET in the chip manufacturing process with 3 nanometer precision, while TSMC will delay the use of this technology, until the production date of 2 nanometer precision chips in In 2026, it currently only produces chips with 3 nanometer precision according to the old Fin-FET technology .
According to Samsung, its GAA-FET technology, which it calls MBCFET, offers 30% higher performance, 50% lower power consumption and enables a 45% reduction in chip size with Fin- FET.
What is GAA-FET technology and why is it so powerful?
GAA-FET technology embodies the transition of the electronic chip industry from the classical design stage, currently represented by Fin-FET, to a more modern and advanced stage.
Toshiba started
GAA-FET technology was first introduced in 1988 by Toshiba, to use this technology on a small scale in 2006, then Samsung redesigned it and tested its application on electronic chips in 2017, to announce in 2019 that it had reached a breakthrough technical level In this field, it will succeed in the summer of 2022 in introducing this technology at the commercial level, realizing the first chip equipped with GAA technology and with an accuracy of 3 nanometers.
The Secret to the Power of GAA-FET
GAA-FET technology has two unique advantages over older Fin-FET technology, firstly, it is able to withstand higher electrical current, and it also prevents energy leakage due to the way it is designed, while the way GAA-FET allows it to lay the nanowires in the wafers, horizontally and on top of each other, optimizing the structure of the transistors and making them capable of reducing the voltage level and improving performances.
As a result, electronic devices that use a chip based on GAA-FET technology will be faster and consume less power than chips made using Fin-FET process technology.
Samsung already shipped the first batch of 3 nanometer chips supporting GAA-FET technology in the summer of 2022, and it will launch the second generation of this technology in 2023, as it intends to improve the standards of resistance, size and speed. provided by this technology by 30%, as part of the planned path to closing the gap with TSMC and overcoming it over the next five years.
Does Samsung have the ingredients to overthrow the chip giant?
Writer and technical analyst Alan Al-Qarih said in an interview with Sky News Arabia Economy that South Korean company Samsung is considered one of the few companies that can compete with the Taiwanese company. TSMC, the chip market giant in the world, and it is already preparing, perhaps to take the throne of the chip industry, because there is no industrial or political barrier that prevents it from achieve this goal, pointing out that from an industrial and technical point of view Samsung has all the ingredients that allow it to achieve this goal, but not easily.
American satisfaction
Al-Qarih adds that Samsung is politically considered a strategic ally of the United States, which is the only party capable of preventing it from achieving its goal through sanctions, as it does with Chinese companies, and therefore the satisfaction the American power that Samsung enjoys is considered one of the most important elements of the strength on which the company relies. To achieve its goal, this is in addition to the need for many countries around the world to keep the microchip industry away from stretched geographies such as Taiwan, whose land encompasses TSMC Laboratories.
The winner so far is TSMC
Technology analyst Alain Al-Qarih pointed out that there is nothing impossible in the chip industry, but what must be taken into account is that TSMC is still the most important winner of this industry so far because the chips it manufactures are seen as attractive for business, but the GAA-FET technology, which Samsung was able to launch commercially, managed to get rid of some of the shortcomings of old FIN-FET technology, and thus the Korean company is able to offer a more durable and efficient product, and this point in particular may lead to a change that will not be in the interest of TSMC in the next few years. .
What does South Korea’s control of the industry mean?
According to Al-Qarih, as he is now called, the one who controls the manufacture of microchips in the 21st century is like someone who had an influence on the control of the oil supply in the 20th century, considering that the loss of Taiwan’s first place in this industry to the benefit of South Korea means that the latter will have greater economic, political and military influence, recalling that America and China are today engaged in a frantic race at the state level to control this industry, as Samsung and TSMC compete to share the biggest slice of the chipset pie.
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