The foundry leader TSMC held the 2021 Technology Forum today and announced that the 4-nanometer process technology is expected to start trial production in the third quarter of 2021, one quarter earlier than the previous plan, The 3nm process will be mass-produced in the second half of 2022 as planned.
This year is the second consecutive year that TSMC has held an online technical forum to share with customers TSMC’s latest technological developments, including the N6RF process that supports the next generation of 5G smartphones and WiFi 6/6e performance, and supports the most advanced automotive applications. An enhanced version of the N5A manufacturing process and 3DFabric series technology.
The company revealed the latest innovations in advanced logic technology, special technology, and 3DFabric advanced packaging and chip stacking technology in this technical forum. This year, more than 5,000 customers and technology partners from all over the world registered to participate in June 1 to 2 Online technology forum held in Japan.
Join us on Telegram
TSMC introduced the N5 (5 nanometers), N4 (4 nanometers), N5A (5 nanometers A), and N3 (3 nanometers) process technologies at this year’s technology forum. TSMC pointed out that since 2020, leading the industry in mass production of 5nm technology, its yield rate has increased faster than the previous generation of 7nm technology.
The N4 enhanced version in the N5 family further improves performance, power consumption efficiency, and transistor density by reducing the mask layer and design rules that are almost compatible with N5.
TSMC pointed out that since the announcement of the TSMC Technology Forum in 2020, the development progress of N4 has been quite smooth, and it is expected to start trial production in the third quarter of 2021.
TSMC also launched the newest member of the 5nm family, the N5A process, with the goal of meeting the increasing demand for computing power in newer and more enhanced automotive applications, such as artificial intelligence-enabled driving assistance and digital vehicle cockpits.
The chipmaker stated that the N5A brings the same technology used in today’s supercomputers into vehicles. It is equipped with the computing performance, power consumption efficiency, and logic density of the N5 while meeting the strict quality and reliability requirements of AEC-Q100 Grade 2, as well as other vehicles. Safety and quality standards.
TSMC’s N3 technology is scheduled to become the world’s most advanced logic technology when mass production starts in the second half of 2022. N3 relies on the reliable FinFET transistor architecture to support the best performance, power efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. Compared with N5 technology, its speed is increased by 15%, power consumption is reduced by 30%, and logic density is increased by 70%.
