The industry’s first process to use gate-all-around (GAA) transistors, or what Samsung refers to as MBCFETs, is Samsung’s 3GAE fabrication technique (multi-bridge channel field-effect transistors). GAA transistor architecture allows for change of transistor performance and power consumption by modifying the channel’s thickness, which also minimises leakage current because the gate is now encircled by the channel across all four sides. GAAFETs are especially useful for high-performance and mobile applications, thus businesses like Intel and TSMC are putting a lot of effort towards utilising them in 2024 to 2025. However, according to TrendForce , it appears that the first commercial chip to use GAAFETs is an ASIC for cryptocurrency mining. According to TrendForce analysts, the company won’t begin manufacturing mobile system-on-chips utilising the 3GAE fabrication technique until next year. When it comes to brand-new nodes, Samsung typically has an advantage over TSMC and Intel, although in many circumstances, TSMC’s chips are faster and have greater yields. Maybe the organisation sets overly ambitious targets that can’t be met all at once. However, it appears that Samsung’s 3GAE is capable of producing bitcoin mining ASICs, with mobile SoCs occasionally following. Since Samsung often releases its brand-new SoCs for its flagship devices early in the year, the precise timing may be more crucial. Although it appears that 3GAE may not be prepared in time to match Samsung’s plan for its upcoming Galaxy S mobile, using its 3GAE node to create an advanced SoC would be advantageous for its smartphones.
