Samsung's next-gen 2nm-class production node will have backside power delivery, like Intel

Samsung Foundry will be using its new SF2 (2nm-class) manufacturing process as its first with a backside power delivery network (BSPDN), according to the latest reports.

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Chosun.com is reporting that the promising results that were achieved by using backside power delivery changed Samsung's thoughts on the technology, seeing the company rethink the use of BSPDN into a commercial process technology. Samsung was expected to introduce a backside power delivery network with its 1.7nm-class fabrication node, but it will arrive with its SF2 process node in 2025.

As Tom's Hardware points out: there is no 1.7nm-class nodes on Samsung's current roadmaps, where we can only see SF2, SF2P, and SF1.4 process nodes. Samsung has used two Arm-based test chips with backside power delivery, achieving a 10% and 19% die area reduction without telling the world which process node it's using.

Backside power delivery allows for thicker, lower-resistence wires, which are capable of delivering more power, and thus more performance, with less power used. Samsung's research paper saw that backside power delivery has benefits like a 3.6% Fmax improvement, a 2.4% standard block area reduction, and 1.6% standard block performance improvement.

Samsung getting backside power delivery into its upcoming SF2 process technology seems like a reaction to Intel's advancements with its Intel 20A and Intel 18A fabrication technology coming in 2025, and TSMC's upcoming N2P process that rolls off fabrication plant lines in 2026-2027.