Samsung Starts Mass Production Of 10LPP Chips

Samsung announced that it has begun mass production of chips using its second-generation 10nm FinFET process, called 10LPP ( Low Power Plus)

10nm 2nd Gen

A year ago, Samsung began mass-production of chips on its first generation 10nm Low Power Early (LPE) process. The company has since made further improvements to the process technology, which can now bring an increase in performance of up to 10% or a reduction in power consumption of up to 15%, depending on the chip makers' priorities.

Other advantages for 10LPP include a faster time-to-market for chip companies such as Qualcomm. The technology is only an iteration of an existing process, so it's easier for chip makers to upgrade to the new process. Manufacturing yield has also been significantly improved, which should lower costs for chip makers, too.

The 10LPP chips are first expected to appear on the market early 2018, with wider availability expanding throughout the year.

“We will be able to better serve our customers through the migration from 10LPE to 10LPP with improved performance and higher initial yield,” said Ryan Lee, vice president of Foundry Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung with its long-living 10nm process strategy will continue to work on the evolution of 10nm technology down to 8LPP to offer customers distinct competitive advantages for a wide range of applications,” he added.

Next-Gen Process Technologies

Samsung also announced that its newest manufacturing line, called S3, will begin production of chips using 10nm process technology or the upcoming 7nm process with Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography. Samsung has one other fab in South Korea (S1) and another in Austin (S2).

Samsung will also continue to improve the 10nm process with the 10LPU (Low Power Ultimate) generation, which should bring an additional 5% increase in performance. The following 8LPP process generation should provide up to 10% reduction in die size with 10% lower power consumption.