Samsung Electronics Co. today unveiled an expanded portfolio of cutting-edge foundry solutions at its Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) 2019 Munich.
Samsung attracted more than 200 industry experts from fabless companies and foundry partners, and 16 partner booths displayed advanced foundry technology trends, a significant increase in both numbers compared to last year, representing a more solid customer base of Samsung Foundry as well as greater collaboration in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
Since the EMEA semiconductor market is in demand across a wide range of applications including automotive, consumer, network, and internet-of things (IoT), Samsung introduced various specialty technologies, such as FD-SOI, radio frequency (RF), and embedded memory along with comprehensive portfolio of foundry process nodes.
Samsung Electronics showcased its state-of-the-art foundry platforms that bring together essential technical elements for new-age applications, including 5G, IoT, automotive, and high performance computing (HPC), while expanding its design solution partners to improve global customers’ access to Samsung’s foundry solutions.
“It is a great honor to host our global foundry forum with increasing number of attendees every year. The forum has helped us work closely with our customers and strengthen Samsung’s foundry ecosystem,” said Dr. ES Jung, president and head of foundry business at Samsung Electronics, in the keynote speech. “We will strive to get more customer’ trust and be the best partner possible to prepare for the future with.”
Given the robustness of the European automotive industry, the foundry platform for automotive semiconductor market is drawing considerable attention, and is expected to rapidly grow to address the increasing demand in the autonomous and electric vehicle market.
Samsung is currently producing several automotive semiconductor products such as driving assistant and infotainment systems, mainly based on its 28-nanometer (nm) FD-SOI and 14nm process nodes. In order to respond to increasing customer inquiries, Samsung plans to expand its automotive process nodes to 8nm in near future.
Samsung is also focusing on functional safety and component reliability, which are critically important in the automotive industry, since any failure could cause serious consequences of accident or injury.
Samsung has already proven its ability to design IPs to meet the required automotive standard, and received the ISO 26262 certification for functional safety in automotive components from TÜV Rheinland. Complying with reliability standard AEC-Q100 and IATF 16969 quality management system, it is also preparing for automotive semiconductor production.
Meanwhile, in cooperation with ecosystem partners, Samsung will host its first SAFETM (Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem) Forum on Oct 17 in San Jose, to introduce Samsung’s IP, Electronic Design Automation (EDA), and packaging solutions in detail for foundry partners.