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The shortage of chips has intensified in the past two years, and the phenomenon that has lasted for such a long time has not slowed down a little. With the rapid development of smart phones, smart cars and other electronic industries, the semiconductor industry has ushered in a peak of development.
However, due to well-known reasons, under the influence of the "Wanason Agreement", members within the scope of the agreement cannot sell equipment related to the technology to the outside world. As the world's largest manufacturer of lithography equipment, ASML's lithography equipment cannot be shipped freely.
In the case that the lithography machine cannot be ordered, many chip foundries are powerless even if they have the intention to expand the production capacity and improve the process, but they cannot sit idly by for the imminent shortage of chips.
Based on this situation, some large chip manufacturers have begun to start their own production and research of advanced process chips. Companies such as TSMC, Samsung, and SMIC have increased their research and development efforts on chip processes.
The dispute between Samsung and TSMC's high-process chips
Among them, Samsung and TSMC are among the world's top two chip manufacturing leaders, and the industry recognizes that these two companies are the most likely to take the lead in developing advanced processes.
In the 7nm process, both of them have been able to achieve mass production, followed by a battle for more advanced 5nm, 4nm and even 3nm processes. The showdown between TSMC's Fin Field Effect Transistor (FinFET) architecture and Samsung's Orbit gate (GAA) process is currently widely concerned by the industry.
But to be honest, as far as the most advanced 5nm technology is concerned, TSMC is undoubtedly more dominant in terms of stability and yield, and Samsung's yield rate problem is already an old problem.
Like Qualcomm and Nvidia, the previous 5nm chips were initially handed over to Samsung OEM, but due to yield problems, the chips could only be transferred to TSMC FOUNDRY.
The "defection" of these two major customers can give Samsung a gas, in order to win back a city, Samsung decided to compete with TSMC on the 3nm process.
Based on the GAA process, Samsung successfully realized the tape-out of the 3nm process chip in June 2021, and Samsung is quite confident in its own 3nm chip, saying that the 3nm chip created by its own GAA process is more advantageous in performance and stability than the chip made by TSMC based on the 3nm FinFET architecture.
As a result, Samsung did not have a long time to be happy, and within a few days of the 3nm chip being developed, the 4nm process chip that had reached the mass production stage had the problem of a low yield rate. So much so that Samsung had to slow down the research and development progress of the 3nm process chip and focus on the maintenance and improvement of the 4nm process.
So in the past year, Samsung's 3nm process technology has made almost no progress, and this year it has been caught up by TSMC. Samsung can be said to have gotten up early this time, but it rushed to a late set.
TSMC has made a major breakthrough in the 3nm process
According to Taiwan's Lianhe Pao, TSMC's 3nm process has made a major breakthrough in the near future.
TSMC has developed a 3nm advanced process "N3B", and the new technology will be synchronized in August at the eighth phase of the R&D center of Hsinchu 12 factory and the P5 plant of Nanke 18 plant to achieve mass production, and the initial output is expected to be between 40,000 and 50,000 pieces per month.
The "N3B" process will soon be followed by a technical upgrade with the introduction of the advanced variant "N3E". The "N3E" technology is expected to go into production next year.
TSMC's previous 3nm process was also delayed due to the development schedule, resulting in Apple's new generation of processors still only using the 5nm enhanced version of the N4P.
Wei Zhejia, president of TSMC, said that the revenue contribution of the 3 nm process will become the next big growth node after the 5 nm and 7 nm processes.
According to the financial report released by TSMC, the overall revenue in the first quarter of 2022 was NT$491.076 billion (all of which are calculated in NT$), an increase of 35.5% over the same period last year, and the revenue of 362.410 billion yuan last year, and the net profit reached 202.733 billion yuan, an increase of 45.1% over the same period of 139.690 billion yuan in the previous year.
According to the statistical results released by TSMC, the 5nm process and the 7nm process accounted for half of the overall revenue, accounting for up to 50%, the 5nm process accounted for 20% of the first quarter of wafer sales, and the 7nm process accounted for 30% of the first quarter of wafer sales.
If TSMC can really achieve the revenue of the 3nm process to reach the same height as the 5nm process and the 7nm process, the revenue profit will be very impressive.
Intel hopes to strengthen 3nm cooperation with TSMC
On April 8, according to foreign media reports, Pat Gelsinger, CEO of chip giant Intel, went to TSMC to meet with senior leaders when he launched his Asian tour.
In addition to striving for more capacity guarantees for 5nm and 6nm advanced processes, the visit also increased the number of subsequent FOUNDRies for 3nm CPUs. According to the Taiwanese media "Economic Daily", Pat Kissinger hopes that TSMC can open a separate production line for its 3nm process like a cooperation with Apple.
However, due to the high cost of opening a separate 3nm process production line, TSMC asked Intel to advance the pre-production payment, and intel ultimately failed to get the desired results.
As a leading enterprise in the global semiconductor industry, Intel's visit to TSMC to seek cooperation is also enough to see the recognition of the maturity of TSMC in the 3nm process process, which also shows from the side that TSMC wants to achieve mass production of 3nm process.
Write at the end
In addition to the 3nm process, TSMC's research and development in the 2nm process has not been left behind, and it is said that mass production will be achieved in 2025.
What do you think about TSMC's high-process process? Welcome to exchange and discuss together.