- Samsung Electronics spent 1.86 trillion won for wafer purchases in 2019
- The company is also boosting its semiconductor micro-fabrication process
As per a report by Business Korea, Samsung Electronics has increased semiconductor output by about 40 per cent when measured in terms of data unit. It has done so while maintaining its wafer input at a level similar to that of the previous year.
The report said that Samsung Electronics spent 1.86 trillion won for wafer purchases in 2019. In the preceding year, it spent 1.66 trillion won to purchase wafers. The report also said that Samsung Electronics produced 889 billion giga bits (Gb) of semiconductors. It went up 39 percent from 711 billion Gb in 2018.
As per the report, Samsung Electronics’ investment in the semiconductor sector went down to 23.72 trillion won in 2018 and 22.56 trillion won in 2019. It stood at 27.35 trillion won in 2017. The company plans to respond flexibly to changes in the semiconductor market in 2020 and focus on process improvement.
Boosting micro-fabrication process
The report said that the company is also boosting its semiconductor micro-fabrication process. For DRAMS, the company is working to convert its first-generation 10-nm (1x) process to a second-generation (1y) or third-generation (1z) one. Due to this upgrade, the number of semiconductor chips produced with one wafer increases by 20 to 30 per cent.
As per the report, Samsung Electronics has also succeeded in mass-producing sixth-generation (1xx-layer) NAND flashes in 2019. NAND flashes have a smaller chip size than that of fifth-generation (9x-layer) products. They also have 20 per cent higher productivity per wafer than fifth-generation (9x-layer) products. The company also forecast that NAND flashes’ bit gross (growth of semiconductor production per bit unit) will also be within 30 percent in 2020. This will increase semiconductor shipments in terms of data.
