Samsung Electronics has started mass production of SoC (System-on-Chip) processors using 10nm FinFET technology.
The company described the move as an industry first, saying that the 10nm SoC offer 40% lower power consumption and a 27% boost in performance compared with the 14nm process.
It follows on from the mass production in 2015 of FinFET mobile application processors.
The new 10nm FinFET process technology which Samsung started producing for the mass market differs from its 14nm predecessor due to the adoption of an advanced 3D transistor structure that brings along additional improvements in process technology and design enablement.
Devices featuring 10nm SoCs are due to be launched in early 2017 and become more widespread throughout the year.
The company expects to start mass production of the second generation process (10LPP) in the second half of 2017.
Samsung Electronics executive vice president, head of foundry business Jong Shik Yoon said: “The industry’s first mass production of 10nm FinFET technology demonstrates our leadership in advanced process technology.
“We will continue our efforts to innovate scaling technologies and provide differentiated total solutions to our customers.”
The company uses techniques like triple patterning to enable bi-directional routing to overcome problems with scaling.
The South Korean firm said by collaborating with customers and partners, it intends to develop a powerful 10nm foundry ecosystem that includes reference flow verification, IPs and libraries.
Production level process design kits and IP design kits are presently available for design starts.
In November 2015, Samsung started mass production of the industry’s first 128GB DDR4 modules for enterprise servers and data centres.
