TSMC is the first company to commercialize extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography in a foundry process that has been in production for three generations: N7+, N6, and N5. As the current industry leader in chip process technology, TSMC’s 5nm process, which went into mass production in the first quarter of this year, contributed approximately $1 billion in revenue in the third quarter and is expected to exceed $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter.
In addition, TSMC is working closely with ASML, currently, the world’s only EUV lithography supplier, which has acquired a large number of EUV lithography. At the Global Technology Forum in August, TSMC announced that they have approximately half of the EUV lithographs currently in operation worldwide, while capacity is expected to be 60% of the world’s EUV lithography.
The N7+, or second-generation 7nm, EUV consists of four layers in total. Nevertheless, this saves time and improves the efficiency of chip production even compared to multiple exposures.
However, iteration to 5nm brings the number of EUV layers to 14, including, but not limited to contact, through-hole, and critical metal layer processes. As for the more advanced 3nm process, TSMC is also currently progressing according to plan, with plans for risk trial production in 2021 and mass production in 2022.
For 3nm, which will go into production as early as 2022 to achieve a 15% power increase, 30% power reduction, and 70% density increase, EUV will include more than 20 layers, which means that both fins and gates must be inserted into the EUV cutting mask.
Peter Wennink, CEO of ASML, said the increased number of EUV layers has many advantages, such as the need for a single exposure instead of multiple exposures for DUV devices, and the same applies to DRAM chips.
To achieve this, TSMC needs to ensure that the number of EUV lithography devices is installed, but they seem very confident.