Samsung, Qualcomm to Collaborate on Making 7nm Chips for 5G Smartphones

Samsung Electronics Co. has announced that it will cooperate with Qualcomm Technologies Inc to produce 7-nanometre chips for fifth-generation (5G) network service amid rising demand for semiconductors.

The two companies will expand their decade-long cooperation into Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography process technology, including the manufacture of future Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets using Samsung's 7-nanometre Low Power Plus (LPP) EUV process technology, said the South Korean tech giant.

Samsung and Qualcomm have been maintaining close ties through foundry business in the production of 10nm and 14nm technologies, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"We are pleased to continue to expand our foundry relationship with Qualcomm Technologies in 5G technologies using our EUV process technology," Charlie Bae, Executive Vice President of the Foundry Sales and Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement.

He added that the collaboration is an "important milestone" for the firm's foundry business.

Foundry business refers to making chip designs for other companies that do not have a semiconductor fabrication plant.

Using the 7LPP EUV process technology, Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets will offer a smaller chip footprint, giving more usable space inside upcoming products to support larger batteries or slimmer designs, it said.

Samsung introduced 7LPP EUV, its first semiconductor process technology to use an EUV lithography solution, in May 2017.