Samsung has been pushing IC process technology about as hard as any company in the business. It’s foundry business is operating at 65nm and 32/28nm with a 20nm process node in development. (See my recent blog “Samsung 20nm test chip includes ARM Cortex-M0 processor core. How many will fit on the head of a pin?”)
For a little more insight into the particular difficulties of getting to 20nm and how Samsung is overcoming the numerous obstacles, take a look at this short video. In it, Ana Hunter, Vice President of Foundry North America for Samsung explains how Samsung is collaborating with process-technology and EDA partners to blaze a path to 20nm. In particular, note her comments on the need to optimize the entire design flow for 20nm.
