Samsung Electronics manufacturing defects may have harmed the company's customers

The low quality of chemical reagents used in the processing of silicon wafers can cause serious damage to manufacturers of semiconductor products. Suffice it to remember the January incident at the TSMC plant, or return to the topic of restrictions on the export of related materials from Japan to South Korea, which caused panic among Korean manufacturers.

As notes edition Business Korea, this year Samsung Electronics has already had to deal with defects in the production of RAM chips for its own needs using 10nm class technology. Now, according to the source, technological defects were discovered during the production of certain components for third-party customers, and this whole situation could negatively affect Samsung’s image in the eyes of customers.

Representatives of Samsung Electronics confirmed the discovery of defects, but stated that the possible damage is measured in several million US dollars. Third-party sources tend to believe that the scale of the damage is much greater. In any case, Samsung's reputation may suffer, and indirect losses will be greater than direct ones.

It should be admitted that although Samsung is ahead of its main competitors in the pace of implementation of so-called EUV lithography, it does not ship as many products to third-party customers as it does for its own needs. Meanwhile, each new stage of lithographic technology requires increasingly significant capital costs, and it is easier to achieve a quick payback when attracting new clients. Stories about manufacturing defects certainly won't help advertise Samsung's services.

Representatives of NVIDIA admitted this year that Samsung is one of the contract manufacturers ready to produce 7-nm products from the American developer of graphics processors. If the Korean partner fails to make a proper impression on NVIDIA, the bulk of the orders will once again go to TSMC. The latter, in turn, can barely cope with the growing volumes of orders for 7-nm products, and this becomes an additional risk factor for NVIDIA. It is not surprising that NVIDIA, under these conditions, is in no hurry to bring its 7-nm products to the market.

Source: 3dnews.ru