Samsung Achieves Nearly 40% Yield in 1c DRAM, Prepares HBM4 Samples for Q3 2025

While the HBM market is rapidly growing, Samsung has not been able to catch up due to its failure to secure contracts with major clients. The Korean firm now aims to bounce back in this space with its next-generation HBM chip, HBM4. It has recently achieved nearly a 40% yield in 1c DRAM, a key component of these chips. Building on this progress, Samsung plans to start shipping HBM4 samples to major clients in Q3 2025.

Samsung revamps 1c DRAM design after performance issues

Vice Chairman Jeon Young-hyun is putting effort into the DRAM segment as the company is losing competitiveness in the HBM market. According to Korean media, Jeon recently ordered a redesign of 1c DRAM after identifying design-related issues that hurt performance and stability. As part of the redesign, Samsung has increased the line width in peripheral circuits for 1c DRAM, which will improve the stability.

The company is focusing on 1c DRAM because it will be used as the core die for the next-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM). Therefore, it is addressing major product development issues carefully and aims to avoid the mistakes made with previous HBM chips. The report further says the yield of 1c DRAM is improving rapidly and has reached the level of 30-40%. It aims to start full-scale mass production in the second half of the year at its Pyeongtaek Plant 4 (P4) facility.

Early production of 1c DRAM means the company can integrate more advanced DRAM into its HBM4 chips. Samsung’s HBM solution currently uses 1a DRAM, which is one generation behind its competitors, SK Hynix (1b). So, this development will play an important role as SK Hynix will reportedly continue to use 1b DRAM for its next-generation HBM4 chips. This means Samsung will have an advantage as it will move ahead one generation with 1c DRAM.

The firm is gearing up to ship HBM4 samples to major customers such as Nvidia in the third quarter of 2025. It will be interesting to see whether these efforts will help the company gain a foothold in the HBM market. An earlier report revealed that Samsung achieved over 40% yield in logic die tests, hinting at the mass production of its HBM4 chip soon.