Breaking News: TSMC and Samsung's 3nm Yields Still Below 60%

October 9th News - According to foreign reports, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) and Samsung Electronics have both been in production of their advanced 3-nanometer semiconductor manufacturing processes since last year. Samsung Electronics began production on June 30th, while TSMC initiated commercial production on December 29th.

For these two major semiconductor foundries offering the 3-nanometer process, previous reports by foreign media had stated that Samsung Electronics was expected to achieve a yield rate of over 60% this year, while TSMC had already reached a yield rate of 70%-80% by August, surpassing Samsung Electronics.

However, the latest reports from foreign sources indicate that the yield rates for both companies' 3-nanometer processes are currently below 60%, and they are facing challenges in achieving rates above this threshold.

Foreign media also mentioned that a previous report had claimed a 60% yield rate for chips produced by Samsung Electronics using the 3-nanometer process for a client. However, since this did not include SRAM for logic chips, it was not considered a complete 3-nanometer process product.

The challenges in achieving higher yield rates for the 3-nanometer process will also impact customer orders. Foreign media reports noted that due to past errors in advanced process technology, Qualcomm and NVIDIA, two major customers of Samsung Electronics, had turned to TSMC to manufacture their latest generation chips. Samsung is now attempting to regain orders from these two clients, and their 3-nanometer process must achieve at least a 70% yield rate to attract these important customers.

Meanwhile, TSMC's 3-nanometer process has recently come under scrutiny due to overheating issues with Apple's new iPhone 15 Pro. Some industry insiders are beginning to doubt the readiness of TSMC's 3-nanometer process for manufacturing the A17 Pro chip. This raises increasing uncertainty about the readiness of TSMC's process technology.

Furthermore, foreign reports mentioned that TSMC's 3-nanometer process had a yield rate of around 55% at the beginning of the year, resulting in Apple negotiating lower prices. It was also noted that TSMC's yield rate for this process fell below initial expectations.