Samsung still faces hurdles in 3nm GAA process development, they have several technology issues, such as leakage and other crucial issues, in the development of 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) process technology, according to industry sources. Samsung's 3nm GAA process could also be less competitive than TSMC's 3nm FinFET technology in terms of performance and costs

TSMC has confirmed that the mass production of chips using the 3nm process technology will not begin until 2023. This will affect customer product lines. In particular, the iPhone 2022 will be released with 4nm processors.

As reported by Nikkei Asia, citing its own sources, the first customers for 3-nm solutions from TSMC will be jointly Apple and Intel.

TSMC marketing machine also started to make issues.

Monopolization is severe and became worse.

Samsung Electronics has not stayed away from this trend, and therefore over the past 12 months has invested approximately $ 238 million in the capital of small South Korean suppliers of materials and equipment to reduce dependence on imports.

Of the nine companies that Samsung has invested in, eight are public and the ninth is considered a division of another public company. In most cases, Samsung became a shareholder in these companies through the issue of new shares, the share of the Korean conglomerate in their capital does not exceed 10%. Directly the companies that received funds from Samsung intend to direct them to development and research.

Examples of activities that Samsung is interested in include the production of industrial gases used in lithography, as well as the production of protective coatings for photo masks or chemicals for etching silicon wafers.

The South Korean authorities are also ready to support domestic producers, the budget for next year provides for an increase in targeted subsidies by 9%

All of them need money, free money.

Analysis of Qualcomm's quarterly reports showed that in the period from October last year to June, the company's current production costs increased by 60%, for MediaTek the increase was 64%. The revenues of both companies in this interval grew stronger, and only this allowed them to maintain acceptable business profitability.

According to the SEMI association, which unites more than 2,400 companies involved in the development and production of semiconductor products, the cost of chip manufacturers for the purchase of equipment in the second quarter increased by 5%, and in annual comparison, the increase was an impressive 48%. If a year ago $ 16.77 billion was spent on these needs, then in the second quarter of this year, costs increased by 48% to $ 24.9 billion.

AMD progress in ripping clients

Devinder Kumar took part in the Deutsche Bank technology conference, expressing confidence that the phased increase in the forecast for revenue growth this year from 37% to 60% is adequate to the capabilities of contractors producing brand products for AMD. Not confident in TSMC's ability to increase production volumes, AMD would not improve its forecast for revenue growth this year, as a company spokesman explained.

In fact, AMD is confident in its suppliers, and expects the trend of revenue growth to continue not only in 2022, but also in 2023.

Scientists from the United States have proposed a technology for creating transistors with potentially better characteristics than current solutions. This can provide increased processor performance even in the "end of process" era. The idea of ​​such a transistor was picked up by quantum cascade lasers.

In 1971, in the journal "Physics and Technology of Semiconductors", Soviet physicists Kazarinov and Suris in their article "Possibilities of amplifying electromagnetic waves in semiconductors with a superlattice" put forward the idea that when an electron flow passes through a heterogeneous structure, electromagnetic waves are amplified, which will make it possible to generate laser radiation from low energy consumption. In such a “puff pastry”, the signal is amplified without the manifestation of tunneling effects, which is easier to control.

A group of scientists from Purdue University in Indiana suggested that the amplifying principle of electron transport through the superlattice would also work for transistors if the superlattice - a "zebra" of alternating semiconductor materials - was placed in the path of the flow of electrons from one gate to another. This is how the concept of the CasFET cascade field effect transistor was born.

Theoretically, the CasFET transistor will operate with extremely low state switching currents, which will significantly increase the energy efficiency of the device.

https://www.semiconductor-digest.com/purdue-university-technology-for-downscaling-transistors-could-advance-semiconductor-design/

TSMC is on track to move N3 (namely 3nm process) technology to volume production in the second half of 2022, and plans to roll out an enhanced version of the process dubbed N3E with volume production scheduled for second-half 2023.

Fully-utilized fabs boosted pure-play foundry United Microelectronics' (UMC) gross margin to a 20-year high of 36.8% in the third quarter of 2021.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors totaled US$144.8 billion during the third quarter of 2021, up 27.6% on year and 7.4% sequentially, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

Actual unit sales also increased, but only a little.

Semiconductor sales were US$48.3 billion in September 2021, rising 27.6% from a year earlier and 2.2% on month. Monthly sales are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

"Semiconductor shipments reached all-time highs in the third quarter of 2021, demonstrating both the ongoing high global demand for chips and the industry's extraordinary efforts to ramp up production to meet that demand," said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. "Sales into the Americas led the way, increasing more than any other regional market both month-to-month and year-to-year."

So, we can see that all nice reports mean just huge price inflation. As well as we can see source of this inflation - US.

CNBC employees decided to summarize the available information on the plans of the current Intel leadership to expand production capacity in the coming years. Officially, the amount of $ 20 billion that the company will spend on the construction of two new enterprises in Arizona has been mentioned, but representatives of CNBC calculated that in the USA alone the company is ready to spend at least $26 billion on factories, and in aggregate with plans to expand the business elsewhere, this would translate into $ 44 billion in capital expenditures for the manufacturer.