The new process is 45 percent more power-efficient than its prior 5nm technology and offers a 23% increase in performance and a 16% reduction in the surface area.

When it comes to the more energy-efficient chip manufacturing technique, Samsung has already begun production of 3nm chips, beating out rival chip producer TSMC. TSMC's 3nm technology isn't scheduled to be mass-produced until the second half of 2022.

As a result, Samsung claims the new process is 45 percent more power-efficient than its prior 5nm technology, offers a 23% increase in performance, and a 16% reduction in the surface area. It anticipates that its second-generation 3nm technology would lower power consumption and size by 50% and 35%, respectively while increasing performance by 30%.

TSMC controls the market for contract chip manufacturing and is the maker of Apple's processors for its iPhones and Macs. However, Bloomberg says that Samsung will not be able to challenge TSMC's market dominance unless it can demonstrate that its new 3nm process is as cost-effective as TSMC's current technology.

Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor design enables the foundry to reduce the size of transistors without diminishing their capacity to conduct current. The 3nm node GAAFET design is the MBCFET variant seen in the figure below.

In comparison to GAA methods using nanowires with tighter channels, Samsung's unique technique employs nanosheets with broader channels, allowing for superior performance and energy efficiency. Using the 3nm GAA technology, Samsung will be able to alter the nanosheet's channel width to optimize power consumption and performance for a variety of client requirements.

However, Samsung maintains that the chips will ultimately find their way into mobile devices and that they would first be created for "high performance, low power computing". First, the chips will be made in Hwaseong before moving to Pyeongtaek. Bloomberg reports. A new Texas chip facility expected to have the capacity to create 3nm chips, according to early reports, is not expected to begin mass production until 2024. Since the recent worldwide chip shortage, there has been much debate over the site of chip production, with the US, Europe, and China all lobbying to have manufacturers make more chips in their own countries.