Samsung’s Foundry business and edge AI semiconductor firm Ambarella recently announced that Samsung’s 5-nm process technology will be used to support the manufacturing of Ambarella’s new CV3-AD685 automotive AI central domain controller.
The collaboration should provide a nice boost for Samsung Foundry as the broader foundry market heads deeper into an uncertain 2023. Samsung exited 2022 reporting record revenue for its foundry organization in the fourth quarter after a third quarter in which its foundry revenue exceeded the revenue from its core memory chip business for the first time.
But even as it reported those gains back in January, it saw dark clouds gathering for this year, forecasting that foundry usage would decline for the first quarter this year. The company stated, “In the first quarter, Samsung expects the utilization rate to fall and earnings to decline accordingly due to weak demand.. In 2023, demand may fall temporarily in the first half of the year due to the economic slowdown and inventory adjustments. However, the company expects market demand to recover in the second half, centering on HPC and Auto sectors.”
Those comments came around the same time that market research firm TrendForce forecasted that the foundry market could see revenue decline by about 4% year-over-year as utilization rates and other metrics slip. The firm noted that many foundries are seeking refuge in sectors like automotive that offer “a more stable level of demand.”
The automotive sector is exactly where the Ambarella announcement comes into play. The company’s new SoC is built specifically for ADAS, and complements a wide range of solutions for assisted driving, while advancing vehicle automation, according to Ambarella. The integrated CV3-AD685 SoC enables information from various sensors to be fused for robust L2+ to L4 autonomous driving. The manufacturing is expected to occur at a Samsung location in South Korea.
Chris Day, vice president of marketing and business development for Ambarella, told Fierce Electronics, “Ambarella has been working with Samsung Foundry for almost 15 years. Samsung is currently our single source for all of our advanced SoCs. We originally chose Samsung based on the high performance and low power of their process technology, as well as their willingness to work closely with us when we were a startup semiconductor company. For our latest CV3-AD family of automotive AI central domain controller SoCs, we once again chose Samsung because of its aggressive automotive-grade process support and our familiarity with Samsung’s advanced 5-nm process, which we were already using for another family of SoCs that is currently in mass production.”
Samsung Foundry in recent days told Fierce Electronics that it believes it is well-positioned to reap further gains with increasing numbers of automotive and edge AI market opportunities up for grabs.
“Samsung Foundry (SF) has been in the automotive business and invested heavily to provide a broad range of solutions to the automotive and the AI edge market… Some of our past automotive wins are clear indications of our commitment to this market. Our engagement with Ambarella, who utilizes multiple process nodes with SF, is another proof point showing the solutions that we can provide to our customers.”
The foundry also said it offers “a special automotive service package to address the additional manufacturing requirements that the automotive market requires.” In addition, the company said that while its 5-nm process is key to its progress winning automotive deals, it does plan to support other process technologies to continue meeting demand from this market.
“SF’s 5-nm is the most advanced process technology available today for automotive applications and provides customers the balance of performance, power, and area (PPA) optimization needed for today’s advanced ADAS and IVI designs. We realize that systems continue to evolve and the need for greater performance or optimization is needed. That is why SF announced at the latest Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) that we are continuing our expansion in automotive to include a 4-nm process to be able to support the latest innovation and expansion of auto needs.”
Samsung Foundry also indicated at the same SFF event last October that by 2027 it expects automotive, high-performance computing and other non-mobile sectors to account for more than half of its foundry revenue.