While the world’s smartphone businesses may have contracted since the coronavirus outbreak, the chip business of Samsung is booming as usual. The South Korean electronics company has begun the mass production of what it calls “the industry’s first 16-gigabit LPDDR5 DRAM” in its second production line in Pyeongtaek, Korea. Samsung is using the extreme ultraviolet technology in the production of the new 16Gb LPDDR5 chip. This chip would enable more customers to enjoy the full benefits of 5G in the 2021 5G smartphones.
The new chip is based on the third-generation 10nm-class (1z) process of Samsung. According to Samsung, the 16Gb LPDDR5 chip offers the largest capacity and highest speed available in mobile DRAM. Jung-bae Lee, executive vice president of DRAM Product & Technology at Samsung, said that the company would continue to expand its premium DRAM lineup.
Expansion of Manufacturing Capacity in Pyeongtaek Complex
Apart from manufacturing the new chip, the company has also announced to expand its manufacturing capacity in Korea. The Pyeongtaek Line 2 that spans more than 128,900 square meters, equivalent to about 16 soccer fields, is the largest-scale production line, claims Samsung.
The company says the new Pyeongtaek line will serve as the key manufacturing hub for the most advanced semiconductor technologies.
Features of 16Gb LPDDR5 DRAM Chip
The new 16Gb LPDDR5 DRAM is the first memory chip to be mass-produced using extreme ultraviolet technology. It will provide the largest capacity and highest speed in mobile DRAM to date. With the data transfer speed of 6,400Mb/s, the new 16Gb DRAM is about 16 percent faster than the earlier 12Gb LPDDR5 chip with 5,500Mb/s speed. It can transfer 51.2GB of data in just one second. The new chip is also 30 percent thinner than the previous 12Gb chip.
Samsung plans to deliver its first 1z-based 16GB chips to global smartphone makers to dominate the 2021 flagship smartphone market. The company also said that it would expand the use of its LPDDR5 chips into automotive applications too.
