Samsung Electronics will be the sole contract manufacturer for Qualcomm's next high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, South Korea's Electronic Times reported on Wednesday citing unnamed sources. The paper said Samsung will make Qualcomm's Snapdragon 830 mobile processors using 10-nanometre production technology, adding that the South Korean firm agreed to use the processors in half of its next update of the Galaxy S smartphone that will launch in 2017.

In 2015, Samsung had not chosen Qualcomm's AP for the Galaxy S6, a decision that had posed many difficulties for Qualcomm, forcing the company to restructure many design engineers in South Korea.

However, Qualcomm and Samsung reaced a deal later, fand Samsung was the sole manufacturer of the Snapdragon 14nm 820 chips, which were used in the Galaxy S7 smartphone.

This indicates that 10-nano Snapdragon 830s are going to be produced with identical conditions. For Galaxy S8 that will be released in first half of next year, half of Snapdragons and half of Samsung' System LSI Business Department’s Exynos will be loaded.

Smartphone manufacturers are generally trying to internalize their own AP capabilities. Apple is designing its own A series chips, which power the iPhones. China’s Huawei developed Kirin AP through its subsidiary called Hi-Silicon and is loading it into its Smartphones. Xiaomi and ZTE are also developing their own APs. Even LG Electronics is also working to develop its AP.

All these developments force Qualcomm to continue their relationship with Samsung.

However there is a high chance that Samsung will ask other businesses to be responsible for rear-end process packages. Qualcomm is planning to apply next Fan Out packaging technology to Snapdragon 830 for the first time. Apple has already produced the A10s chips for iPhone 7s by using TSMC’s InFO (Integrated Fan Out).

It is heard that Qualcomm will first produce chips through FoPLP (Fan Out Panel Level Package) that is being co-developed by Samsung and Samsung SEM. However if the companies do not get satisfying yields from FoPLP, they are planning to turn to foreign semiconductor package test (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and TEST) businesses such as Amkor and STATS ChipPac.