Quote:Samsung presented plans to begin mass production of 3nm Gate-All-Around field-effect transistors (GAAFET) as early as 2021. The company also confirmed that it would begin its production of 7nm EUV chips in the second half of this year.

GAA technology has been in development since the early 2,000 by Samsung and other companies. The GAA transistors are FET transistors that feature four gates on all four sides of a channel to overcome the physical scaling and performance limitations of FinFETs, including supply voltage.

Samsung has been developing its proprietary implementation of GAA technology, called multi-bridge-channel FET (MBCFET) since 2002, according to Ryan Sanghyun Lee, vice president of market for Samsung Foundry. The company noted that its MBCFET technology uses a nanosheet device to enhance gate control, which can lead to significant performance improvements to the transistors.

Quote:At the start of 2020, it was reported that Samsung had succeeded in building its first 3nm prototypes with mass production scheduled to start in 2021. Now, it seems like Samsung is being forced to delay manufacturing launch of the new process node to 2022, according to a report from DigiTimes today.

The delays are said to be due to the coronavirus, which has hampered Samsung's ability to fulfill the scheduled installation of equipment for the new production lines.

Quote:Samsung in its Q1-2020 financials release disclosed that the company will commence mass production of chips on its cutting-edge 5 nanometer EUV silicon fabrication process within Q2-2020 (that's before July 2020). This is big, as it lends credence to rumors of NVIDIA secretly developing 5 nm GPUs. Suddenly, it's possible that "Ampere," if not "Hopper," is 5 nm EUV-based, as NVIDIA has chosen Samsung to be its foundry partner for next-generation GPUs.

"In the second quarter, the Company aims to expand EUV leadership, beginning with the start of mass production of 5 nm products, while closely monitoring the uncertain market situation caused by COVID-19," the company states in the release. Samsung also announced that following commencement of mass production on 5 nm, further development of GAAFET (gate all-around FET) 3 nanometer silicon fabrication process will get underway. The company appears to be erring on the side of caution with its forward-looking statements, though. Much of what Samsung does will be dictated by the impact of COVID-19 on the supply chain and market.