COVID-19 might set Samsung’s 5nm plans back, causing serious damage

As COVID-19 continues to affect businesses around the world, Samsung might be forced to delay its 5nm mass production plans. The reason for this, according to Business Korea, is that ASML is having difficulties exporting its EUV (extreme ultraviolet) solutions from the Netherlands amid the coronavirus pandemic.ASML is the world’s only supplier of EUV equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. Therefore, Samsung is not the only semiconductor giant to rely on ASML for EUV solutions. TSMC is in the same boat, and the report goes to mention that both TSMC and Samsung might have to deal with great losses due to this seemingly inevitable delay in production.However, since TSMC is a step ahead of Samsung in the race for 5nm production, this delay could have a big negative impact on the Korean tech giant as it would contribute to widening the gap between it and TSMC even further. Should Samsung lose even more ground to TSMC, it will be virtually impossible for the company to win orders from industry giants like Apple and Qualcomm, claims the report.Samsung’s future regarding the X60 modem might be hanging from a threadLast month, Samsung revealed its plans to have the 5nm line ready for mass production by the end of June. But if the company won’t be able to get the foundry line up and running, other giants in the industry could suffer.Samsung doesn’t manufacture chipsets only for its own smartphone business. It has numerous clients including Qualcomm. Before COVID-19 became a pandemic, the new X60 modem was confirmed to enter production in Samsung 5nm facilities, but all of this might now be in jeopardy.The X60 modem is expected to be employed by the majority of 5G-enabled flagship smartphones next year, so only time will tell if Samsung will be able to meet the deadline in light of this recent report.