TSMC Outlines 5nm Plans, 7nm and EUV Progress

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cdrinfo.com, Oct. 23, 2019 – 

During the latest conference call following the company's announcement of its Q3 2019 results, TSMC had the chance to comment on the progress made to its 5nm and 7nm manufacturing processes, and the implementation of EUV in the chip making procedure.

C. C. Wei, Vice Chairman & CEO of TSMC, expects that demand from both smartphone- and high-performance computing-related applications in Q4 to continue to increase, thanks to the company's 7-nanometer technology that powers these applications.

He also expects the demand for 5G infrastructure and 5G smartphones to lead to the the increase of TSMC's CapEx for this year. The company expects a faster ramp of 5G smartphones as compared to 4G with the penetration rate of 5G smartphones to reach mid-teens percentage of the total smartphone market in 2020.

This means that the silicon content of 5G smartphones will be substantially higher than that of 4G smartphones. That is due to increasing functionalities and additional ICs for more camera, RF circuit, modem, power management IC, etc.

TSMC expects its 5 nm (N5) manufacturing technology to provide significant benefits when it comes to performance, power, and area scaling, which is why the contract maker of semiconductors expects a tangible number of its customers to adopt this process.

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