Demand For 7nm Fabrication To Surge When 5G Chips Become Available

More mobile SoC suppliers are expected to start sampling their 5G-capable solutions at the end of 2019, which will spur further demand for 7nm fabrication processes at foundries, according to Digitimes Research.

Demand for 7nm fabrication processes is being driven by flagship devices rolled out by smartphone vendors, said Digitimes Research. Nevertheless, 28nm remains the mainstream process technology for the manufacture of mobile SoCs, but the segment as a proportion of total demand will fall by 8.6pp in 2019 when chip suppliers roll out more solutions manufactured using 12nm and 14nm process technologies.

In addition, companies capable of developing 5G SoCs will increasingly have their in-house designed processor architecture replace ARM’s Cortex-A53 core, Digitimes Research indicated.

Qualcomm, for instance, will have more of its mobile SoCs including entry-level ones based on its own processor design, while Samsung Electronics continues to enhance its custom-built Mongoose cores, Digitimes Research indicated.―DigiTimes