Samsung's new 1c DRAM yields improve: new chairman admits prior mistakes, but ready for HBM4

Samsung's new 1c DRAM yields are reportedly at around 30-40%, with expectations of shipping HBM4 samples to major clients like NVIDIA in Q3 2025.

Samsung's new 1c DRAM yields improve: new chairman admits prior mistakes, but ready for HBM4
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Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: Samsung is set to launch next-gen HBM4 memory with its advanced 1c DRAM core die, targeting mass production in late 2025. Under Vice Chairman Jeon Young-hyun's leadership, Samsung aims to improve yields and compete strongly in the AI GPU market, supplying major clients like NVIDIA and AMD.

Samsung will be bursting onto the next-gen HBM4 memory business later this year, with its new 1c DRAM driving its upcoming HBM4 memory, which the South Korean firm will be sampling to tech giants including AI GPU leader NVIDIA, in Q3 2025 ready for next-gen AI chips arriving later this year, and into 2026.

In a new post from @Jukenreslove on X and reported on by South Korean media outlet The Bell, we're hearing that Vice Chairman Jeon Young-hyun -- who was freshly minted the "firefighter" of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business -- looking closely over the DRAM business as the new boss as the head of the Device Solutions (DS) division.

The chairman has been personally overseeing and instructing Samsung's huge redesign of 10nm 6th generation DRAM (1c DRAM) which is being prepared as the next-generation HBM4 core die, with Jeon "taking care" of major product development issues. Jeon was appointed the head of the DS division back in May 2024, and promoted to the head of the memory division and president of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) in November.

After assuming his new position as the head of the DS Division, Vice Chairman Jeon first started diving into the status of DRAM development, after which he said there were problems with the design of the 10nm 4th generation DRAM (1a DRAM) and quickly ordered a redesign of 1a DRAM and derivative products.

Samsung's thrust into 1c DRAM development is because it has fallen behind massively in the HBM semiconductor market against fellow South Korean memory rival SK hynix, and US-based Micron. 1c DRAM will be used as the HBM4 core die, which is why Jeon ordered the redesign, in the direction of increasing the peripheral circuit line width.

This personal choice for the new direction of 1c DRAM development was a choice towards improving the stability of the chip, versus the cost. Under Jeon's direction, Samsung saw yields "also improving rapidly". The Bell reports that in Q2 2025 (any time now, as June wraps up Q2) it is expected that 1c DRAM yields are at 30-40% and that full-scale mass production can begin in the second half of this year.

Samsung has set up its mass production line at its Pyeongtaek Plant 4 (P4) aiming to enter the next-gen HBM4 market "in earnest" starting with mass production of 1c DRAM in the second half of 2025, and in order to do so, the company is preparing to ship HBM4 memory samples to major customers including AI GPU leader NVIDIA, in Q3 2025.

HBM4 uses a DRAM one generation higher than its competitors as its core die, so Samsung's competitiveness in the HBM market is expected to be high. Samsung previously used 1a DRAM in up to HBM3E memory, which is one generation behind its competitors with SK hynix and Micron, which both used 10nm 5th generation DRAM (1b DRAM) as the HBM3E core die.

NVIDIA will unleash its next-generation Rubin AI GPU architecture and new R100 AI GPU family using next-generation HBM4 memory -- mostly from SK hynix -- but AMD and Samsung also announced a new partnership in July 2024, where Samsung would be supplying AMD with high-performance substrates for AMD's next-gen CPUs and GPUs for data centers, where we'll see HBM4 on next-gen AMD Instinct AI accelerators.

Samsung's HBM market strategy is centered around HBM4, with the demand for customized semiconductors using HBM4, the "battlefield is favorable to Samsung, which has been working on internalizing its semiconductor foundry process. Other memory makers must work with TSMC to have their chips fabbed, while Samsung Electronics' memory division can respond to tech giants' demands much better thanks to cooperation directly with its semiconductor foundry division.

Vice Chairman Jeon expressed confidence in next-gen HBM market at Samsung's regular shareholders meeting in March 2025, where he said: "in the era of AI competition, HBM is a representative component, but we missed the early market because we read the market trend a little late, but now we have laid the foundation for organizational restructuring and technology development" and that Samsung is "preparing step-by-step as planned so as not to make the same mistake in next-generation HBM such as HBM4 or custom HBM".