Samsung and TSMC have yet to see yield improvements in their respective 3nm technologies. Although the Taiwanese foundry has secured a long-term customer from Apple, and future SoCs are said to be mass-produced on the newer N3E process, Samsung's 3nm GAA node has not yet launched, and there are reports that Qualcomm will not place orders if these yields do not climb to 70%.
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There are reports that Samsung has delivered the first batch of 3nm GAA to Chinese Bitcoin mining customers, but Korean media Chosun reported that the true form of these chips is incomplete and lacks SRAM in logic chips. It is said that complete 3nmGAA wafers are difficult to produce, so the Korean manufacturer is said to have a yield rate of only 50%, the same as TSMC. 3nmGAA is said to be superior to FinFET, but it also has production issues.
An official familiar with Samsung's plans said that the current yield rate of 50% is still unsatisfactory. Unless it reaches a yield rate of 70%, it will be difficult to obtain customers such as Qualcomm. If production volumes remain low, even Samsung's own LSI division, which designs chipsets and modems for various applications, may not take orders. It’s worth noting that companies like Qualcomm have to pay full price for this batch of wafers, including defective ones.
With only 5 out of 10 wafers considered usable at 50% yield, and Qualcomm being forced to pay for all 10 wafers, the San Diego company has no choice but to increase the price of its Snapdragon products, thus starting a vicious cycle that will have a financial impact on its smartphone partners and consumers. If Qualcomm continues to see Samsung unable to meet these requirements, its Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is likely to be mass-produced using TSMC's N3E process, causing the Korean chipmaker to suffer another loss.