Chipmakers can’t keep up. TSMC, the Taiwanese semiconductor giant, predicts the shortage will last beyond 2021 and a few tough years ahead. To alleviate this situation, the company has announced a plan of 30,000 million dollars to expand its production capacity and maintain its production plans.
This week, during its annual meeting for investors, TSMC has confirmed that the 3 nanometer chips will arrive in 2022. Along with this promise, from Anandtech they report that TSMC has already started the development of its first 2 nanometer chips, which will presumably be produced on a large scale in 2023.
Large-scale production of 3 nanometers by the second half of 2022
TSMC would be developing the 3 and 2 nanometer chipsets at the same timeAlthough at the moment the Taiwanese firm has not revealed many details. The document of the annual meeting describes that they are working with “good results” in the development of lithography under their “advanced CMOS (‘complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor’)”.
In the case of 4 nm with FinFET technology, TSMC explains that large-scale production will begin in early 2022. For 3 nm, also under FinFET, production will arrive during the second half of 2022, assures the manufacturer. A process that will place around 290 million transistors per square millimeter.
In 2020, TSMC focused on interconnection, manufacturing base, and reliability assessment of the 3 nanometer process. In this 2021, the company plans to finalize the development with a study of the production risks and the final evaluation, for its launch at the beginning of next year.
The 3 nanometers will be the sixth generation that will use 3D transistors, but for the 2 nanometers the company could bet on the GAAFET variant (gate-all-around field-effect transistor). “The company has advanced towards the full development of 2 nm technology. At the same time, research has advanced with exploratory studies for nodes above 2 nm”, explains TSMC in reference to 1 nm chips that are already in the market. horizon.
While TSMC ensures that the development of the 3-nanometer technology is complete, during 2021 they will work to meet the lithography requirements for the 2-nanometer node. A description that anticipates that they are already working on producing the first chips of this size, but the process has not yet closed.
TSMC has four gigafactories for the production of transistors. While the 5 nanometer chips are focusing on your Fab 18, for 3 and 2 nanometer transistors the capacity of its Fab 12 is being expanded.
“By 2021, we now forecast semiconductor industry growth of around 16%,” explains Wendell Huang, chief financial officer at TSMC. A growth that in the case of TSMC they expect to be around 20%.
Because despite the fact that the shortage can last throughout the year, the demand continues. And chipmakers like TSMC say they will maintain and even accelerate the planned schedule.
In Engadget | Few chips and many problems: this is how a global shortage affects mobiles, computers, TVs and even cars (Clear X # 127)