What GAA and HBM restrictions mean for South Korea

The next frontier in U.S. semiconductor restrictions for Chinese companies is gate-all-around (GAA) chip manufacturing technology. According to a Bloomberg report, measures are being discussed to limit Chin’s access to this advanced technology, widely considered a successor to the FinFET technology currently used in manufacturing cutting-edge semiconductor devices.

GAA, also known as gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAAFET), replaces the vertical fins used in FinFET technology with a stack of horizontal sheets. This GAA structure further reduces leakage while increasing drive current, thus bolstering transistor density and delivering power and performance benefits.

Figure 1 GAA turns FinFET transistors sideways to make channels horizontal instead of vertical to extend semiconductor device scaling and reduce power consumption. Source: Samsung

In March this year, the U.K. imposed controls over GAA transistor technology on companies in China. Now, a source in Bloomberg report claims that the United States and other allies are expected to follow the U.K. in imposing controls on GAA technology this summer.

However, these access controls haven’t been finalized yet, mainly because the early version is considered very broad. It doesn’t make a clear distinction between whether these restrictions are aimed at stopping China from developing its own GAA technology or blocking chipmakers from the United States and its allies from selling GAA-based chips to companies in China.

Among the U.S. allies, South Korea is notable in this affair because Samsung Foundry is a pioneer in commercializing the GAA manufacturing technology in its 3-nm process node. Intel is expected to implement GAA transistor architecture in its 20A node which will be unveiled later this year. TSMC plans to employ GAA technology in its 2-nm process node to be made available in 2026.

That shows Samsung is ahead of the curve in GAA chip manufacturing architecture, so it’ll be interesting to see South Korea’s take on this matter. It’s worth noting that the Bloomberg report quotes anonymous sources and stresses that deliberations are private.

While South Korea and its tech star Samsung are likely to be at the center of this affair, the Bloomberg report also revealed some early-stage discussions about limiting exports of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to China. That will put South Korea at the center of another technology export conflict as two of the three companies supplying HBM chips are from South Korea.

Figure 2 HBM is a high-end memory that stacks DRAMs using vertical channels called through-silicon vias (TSVs). Source: Samsung

Samsung and SK hynix, along with U.S. memory chip maker Micron, currently produce these high-end memory chips, which are considered crucial in AI applications while being paired with artificial intelligence (AI) processors. New restrictions on HBM chips, like GAA, could significantly impact South Korean tech-related exports.

The U.S. semiconductor technology export restrictions imposed on companies in China have mostly impacted chip vendors in the United States, with the exception of lithography expert ASML, which is based in the Netherlands. Now, South Korea could bear the brunt of these potential restrictions on GAA and HBM technologies.

As the Bloomberg report points out, no final decision has been made yet. But it’d be interesting to see how South Korean technology and trade officials respond to such export restrictions, especially, regarding the export of HBM chips, for which Samsung and SK hynix command nearly 90% of the market.

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• Samsung Plans Aggressive Rollout of Next-Gen Transistors
• Samsung unveils plans for 2-nm and 1.4-nm process nodes
• All you need to know about GAA chip manufacturing process
• From FinFET to GAA: Samsung’s fab journey to 3 nm and 2 nm

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