Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it will cooperate with Qualcomm Technologies Inc. to produce 7-nanometer chips for fifth-generation (5G) network service amid rising demand for semiconductors.
The two companies will expand their decade-long cooperation into Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography process technology, including the manufacture of future Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets using Samsung’s 7-nanometer Low Power Plus (LPP) EUV process technology, the South Korean tech giant said.
Samsung and Qualcomm have been maintaining close ties through foundry business in the production of 10 nm and 14 nm technologies. Foundry business refers to making chip designs for other companies that do not have a semiconductor fabrication plant.
Using the 7LPP EUV process technology, Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets will offer a smaller chip footprint, giving more usable space inside upcoming products to support larger batteries or slimmer designs, it said.
Samsung introduced 7LPP EUV, its first semiconductor process technology to use an EUV lithography solution, in May 2017.
“We are pleased to continue to expand our foundry relationship with Qualcomm Technologies in 5G technologies using our EUV process technology,” Charlie Bae, executive vice president of the Foundry Sales and Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics, said, adding that the collaboration is an “important milestone” for the firm’s foundry business.
