3nm process yield is less than 20%? Rumor has it that Samsung is cooperating with US companies to improve yield

According to Taiwanese media "Business Times" citing Korean media sources, the market reported that the yield rate of Samsung's 3nm process does not exceed 20%. For this reason, Samsung has expanded cooperation with the US company Silicon Frontline Technology to improve the yield rate.

It is reported that Silicon Frontline Technology provides chip qualification evaluation and electrostatic discharge (ESD) prevention technology. ESD is a major cause of semiconductor chip defects. Preventing or reducing ESD will help improve chip yield.

Previously, it was reported that Samsung's next year's flagship Galaxy S23 will abandon its own chips and use Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor produced by TSMC's 4nm.

Industry interpretation pointed out that Samsung announced that it would lead TSMC in the production of 3nm chips, but it abandoned its own mobile phone chips in the most important mobile phone product line, and all equipped with TSMC's Qualcomm processors. This means that Samsung’s foundry strength is still not as good as TSMC’s. Even though 3nm is ahead of its peers in mass production, it is still not as good as TSMC’s performance in key chip yield, power consumption, and performance.