Samsung is targeting super-tiny 4nm chips on its roadmap

Tech enthusiasts know the drill. Every year or two, we see smartphone chips being produced on an ever smaller process, cramming more power into tinier bits of silicon.

Last year saw 14nm (nanometre) and 16nm chips being produced by the likes of Samsung, Qualcomm and Huawei. This year? Well, we’ve seen 10nm chips being produced, in the form of the Samsung Exynos 8895 and Snapdragon 835. China’s MediaTek is also preparing 10nm chips for release later this year.

Just to put that into perspective, one nanometre is one billionth of a metre — human DNA is roughly 2.5 nanometres in diameter.

Now, Samsung has laid out its roadmap for future chip production, featuring moves to 8nm, 7nm, 6nm, 5nm and then a ridiculous 4nm manufacturing process.

To assist in the move to the tiny new standards, Samsung will be using Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography (starting with 7nm), claiming it will break Moore’s Law in the process.

Ultimately, the move to 4nm will see a “nanosheet device” used to “overcome the physical scaling and performance limitations of the FinFET architecture”.

When can we see this tech in smartphones? We’ve contacted local Samsung representatives and will update the article when we receive the relevant response.