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With the shortage of supply in the chip market, in order to solve the problem of chip shortage, many chip manufacturers have expanded their production capacity. However, due to well-known reasons, under the technical restrictions, ASML can not achieve the free shipment of lithography equipment, which has led to many chip manufacturers and semiconductor companies have to start their own chip manufacturing process.
As the world's largest chip foundry, TSMC can not be left behind. In order to achieve chip freedom as soon as possible, TSMC has developed its own 3D Fabric technology (3D packaging technology), which can realize the production of processes below 7nm, and now after continuous optimization, TSMC can already manufacture chips with a maximum production process of 2nm with this technology.
However, at present, this technology cannot achieve mass production, and the yield rate cannot catch up with the chips manufactured by the EUV lithography machine. TSMC has been looking for a solution.
TSMC will achieve mass production of 2nm chips
On the morning of April 14, TSMC held its 2022 Q1 quarterly earnings meeting. At the meeting, TSMC revealed the progress of the new process in the future, saying that it will achieve mass production of 3nm process chips in the second half of this year, and it is expected to reach mass production of 2nm process chips by 2025.
The 3nm process battle between TSMC and Samsung has always attracted the attention of the global semiconductor industry. Recently, TSMC has made a major breakthrough in the 3nm process, and the new process is named "N3B". The 3nm process has also been delayed in the development of the 5nm process, resulting in Apple's new generation of processors still using the 5nm process's enhanced N4P process.
This year, TSMC decided to take the lead in mass production of the second version of the 3nm process N3B, and the new process is expected to be launched simultaneously in August 2022 at the eighth phase of the R&D center of Hsinchu 12 factory and the P5 plant of Nanke 18, and the initial output per month will be between 40,000 and 50,000 pieces.
The new process "N3B" will soon be upgraded to another advanced variant, "N3E", which is expected to be put into production next year.
According to TSMC's financial report, the overall revenue in the Q1 quarter exceeded the operating target, up 11.6% month-on-month to $17.57 billion (about NT$491.076 billion), setting a record high for single-quarter revenue. The year-on-year increase was as high as 36%, the gross margin was 55.6%, and the operating margin also hit a new high of 45.6%.
Among them, 5nm process chips and 7nm process chips account for half of the revenue. The 5nm process accounts for 20% of the total revenue, and the 7nm process accounts for 30% of the total revenue.
At present, the demand for the high-performance computing market and automotive electronics market is unprecedentedly strong, coupled with the increase in the sub-foundry quotation a while ago, which is also related to the relatively favorable exchange rate of the New Taiwan dollar, which has become the main driving force for TSMC's Q1 revenue to hit a new high.
TSMC speeds up the process
TSMC will move towards the 3nm process in the second half of this year, especially after receiving the news that Samsung's foundry is currently facing production problems, in order to promote orders from several companies in the personal computing industry, TSMC will accelerate this pace.
Apple's latest M1 Ultra SoC chip is manufactured from two M1 Max chips using TSMC's 5nm process node and advanced packaging technology. At present, Apple has become TSMC's largest customer after Huawei.
As companies now pay more attention to in-house chip design and the demand for advanced packaging solutions grows, TSMC will play an increasingly important role through more 3D Fabric platforms.
5nm Process Technology As the most advanced technology in TSMC's product portfolio, TSMC has increased shipments of this process technology series. According to a report by DigiTimes, TSMC has increased the production of 5nm process chips from the original 120,000 pieces per month to 150,000 pieces per month now, an increase in production by 25%.
For advanced processes, several major manufacturers are in contact with TSMC
According to South Korean media business Korea, TSMC will become the only GPU supplier to NVIDIA. Nvidia's H100 GPU plans to be manufactured using TSMC's 4nm process, and has also paid A down payment of up to $7 billion to TSMC to ensure that its products can use TSMC's 5nm process technology.
AMD's Zen 4 processor will also use TSMC's 5nm manufacturing technology and is expected to enter the market within 4-5 months after production is completed.
Intel CEO Kissinger met with TSMC executives in April this year and demonstrated a willingness to work with TSMC to explore more advanced 2nm processes and even supporting mature processes.
In addition to the cooperation on the 2nm process, out of consideration for its own needs, Kissinger also hopes to win more capacity of 5nm advanced processes, as well as increase the subsequent OEM orders for 3nm processes. In addition to these, additional support is also expected for the capacity of 28nm and other mature processes.
Kissinger expressed hope that TSMC can open a separate production line for it, but due to the high cost of establishing a separate production line, TSMC hopes that Intel can prepay the deposit of the 3nm process production line, and Intel has not been able to do so.
conclusion
From the perspective of TSMC speeding up the production process and increasing production, it can be seen that the technology of 5nm and 3nm advanced processes is relatively mature. Many international manufacturers have also sought cooperation, indicating that TSMC's advanced process has been internationally recognized.
In the duel between TSMC's FinFET architecture (fin field effect transistor) and Samsung's GAA process (orbiting the gate), it can be seen that TSMC is superior.
Therefore, it is not unfounded for TSMC to achieve mass production of 2nm advanced processes in 2025.
Do you think it is possible for TSMC to really achieve mass production of the 2nm process in 2025? Leave your unique insights and share a discussion in the comments section.