Samsung’s 2nm process yield is a mystery: only 20% last year. Continued instability will result in the loss of Snapdragon 8 flagship orders

With the mass production of Exynos 2600 processors, Samsung's 2nm process seems to be experiencing an explosion. The yield problem that has been troubled for many years was previously thought to have been solved, but the latest news has made people worried about the mass production of 2nm. South Korean Business Korea media reported that Qualcomm is evaluating the foundry design strategy for the next generation of Snapdragon processors.The focus of production will shift to TSMC instead of Samsung, and it is possible that all orders will be given to TSMC.

The reason that prompted Qualcomm to abandon Samsung OEM was Samsung's own 2nm yield problem. The two parties had been discussing cooperation before. You must know that Samsung will not OEM Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 series flagship chips after 2022. This would have been an excellent opportunity.

But Samsung’s 2nm yield rate is still a problem.The yield rate in the second half of last year was only 20%, it is impossible to produce such a yield, which will lead to extremely high chip costs.

The latest yield rate has been greatly improved, but it is still lower than the 60% level required for stable production. TSMC's 2nm process can stabilize at 60-70%, and Qualcomm's standard requires more than 70%. TSMC can achieve the goal.

This issue has been the key to why Samsung has been lagging behind TSMC in the competition for many years. The yield rate determines production capacity and cost. TSMC is like cheating after the 28nm node. Each generation of technology is basically improving steadily. Customers can trust TSMC for production. Even if the cost of advanced technology continues to increase, they cannot switch to foundries.

However, it is true that Samsung has changed a lot in the 2nm generation.The 20% yield rate was achieved in the second half of last year. In March this year, it was said to be around 60%.If this data is reliable, the 70% gap with Qualcomm's requirements is not unacceptable. After all, Samsung's foundry price will be much cheaper than TSMC, which is enough to make up for this gap.

Samsung's failure to manufacture the next-generation Snapdragon 8 flagship chip is more likely due to Samsung's insufficient production capacity. Moreover, it has already signed up large customers like Tesla before, and its production capacity is mainly given to them.