TSMC, one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers on the market, expects mass production of the first 3nm chips beginning in 2022.
TSMC plans to produce chips in 3nm from 2022
To execute this plan to produce chips with 3 nm nodes, TSMC began building a factory in October 2019. This new facility will be completed in a year or a year and a half, at which time the relocation of equipment will begin, starting as soon as possible in 2022.
Mark Liu, president of TSMC, said the facility will have a capacity of approximately 55,000 300mm wafers per month using a 3nm (3N) node.
Installation of the factory will cost TSMC approximately $19.5 billion, a multi-million dollar investment that will certainly return to TSMC’s coffers in a relatively short period of time. The company usually builds its factories in phases, although they have not indicated which phase they are currently in.
Currently, TSMC has Fab18 and Fab14 factories. Together they have a combined workforce of more than 15,000 employees, with the distinctive feature that Fab18 is not yet fully completed. Once completed, the number of employees will increase to about 20,000.
The new 3nm or 3N node technology will provide a 15% performance increase on its own and without architectural improvements. It will also reduce power consumption by 30% and increase transistor density by 70%. TSMC will use EUVL ultraviolet lithography technology.
The race to improve transistor density on chips continues, enabling more powerful CPUs, SOCs, or GPUs without increasing size or power consumption. We will keep you up to date.