Samsung starts mass production of 16Gbit chips lpddr5 on 10nm process with EUV

Samsung has started mass production of 16Gbit lpddr5 chips. The company makes the chips using a third-generation 10nm class process using EUV machines. According to Samsung, the memory is 16 percent faster than 12Gbit-lppdr5.

The 16Gbit lpddr5 chips work at 6.4Gbit / s, where Samsung currently runs 12Gb lpddr5 at 5.5Gbit / s. Samsung uses eight 16Gbit chips for packages of 16GB. Currently, the manufacturer has to use eight 12Gbit chips and four 8Gbit chips to get to 16GB. In addition, according to the manufacturer, the new memory is thirty percent thinner than its predecessor, with all the advantages for smartphones that entails, such as freeing up more space for other parts.

Samsung makes the 16Gbit chips using a ‘1z process’, or the third generation of its 10nm node. The company uses euv machines for this. For processors, euv has been used for certain chip layers for some time and now that the technology is more mature, manufacturers are also using it for memory production. Euv machines use a wavelength of 13.5 nm for the exposure step, which means that smaller structures can be applied more accurately and faster. It is not known to what extent Samsung uses euv in the 1z production. At the beginning of this year, the company announced that it would fully use euv next year in the fourth 10nm generation for dram.