TSMC's 7nm is already in mass production, and its $25 billion 5nm plan is to be mass produced by the end of next year

Leifeng.com pointed out in yesterday's article " A detailed interpretation of the 7nm process, how semiconductor giants are fighting to extend the life of Moore's Law " that TSMC has chosen a safe route on 7nm. Digitimes reported that TSMC held a technical seminar on the 21st, and CEO Wei Zhejia said that 7nm process chips have begun mass production and refuted the rumors that TSMC's 7nm yield rate is slowly improving. At the same time, he also revealed that TSMC's 5nm process will be put into mass production at the end of 2019 or early 2020.

According to Wei Zhejia, the mass production of 7nm will bring TSMC's total 12-inch wafer production capacity to 1.2 million pieces, a 9% increase from 1.05 million pieces in 2017. Although he did not elaborate on specific 7nm orders and customers, he said that more than 50 products will be taped out by the end of 2018. Among them, AI chips, GPUs and mining chips account for most of the production capacity, followed by 5G and application processors (APs).

According to Leifeng.com, the A12 processor that will be equipped in the new iPhone will become the main driving force for TSMC's 7nm chip production growth in 2018. In addition, Bitmain and Canaan Creative, two major global mining machine manufacturers, are competing for TSMC's 7nm production capacity. Qualcomm, which cooperates with Samsung on both 14nm and 10nm, is also said to adopt TSMC's 7nm process. In addition, about 20 customers including MediaTek, AMD, and Nvidia will take the lead in adopting TSMC's 7nm process. Other sources also said that most orders will be executed in the first half of 2019.

As for the more advanced process, Wei Zhejia said that the enhanced 7nm chip Tape out will be put into risk trial production in the third quarter of this year and mass production will start next year. At the same time, EUV will be introduced into the enhanced 7nm process next year, and 5nm will be put into risk trial production in the first half of 2019, with the main application being high-speed computing. Wei Zhejia joked that TSMC is expected to invest $25 billion in 5nm, "You will know how much the price will be in the future!" The industry believes that the technology and project cost of 5nm will be taken to a higher level, which will help consolidate its position as Apple's exclusive supplier. TSMC has been exclusively manufacturing A-series chips for Apple since the A9X chip of the iPad Pro. It is reported that this is mainly due to TSMC's lead over its competitor Samsung in process technology.

*Table from Economic Daily

Wei Zhejia also reiterated that 5G and AI will drive the four major applications of mobile phones, high-speed computing, automobiles and the Internet of Things, thereby driving the growth of the semiconductor industry. Mobile phones will be indispensable to humans, and high-speed computing will be the foundation of everything in the future.

According to Leifeng.com, the current cost of introducing 7nm is prohibitive for many chip companies. Therefore, whether TSMC's 5nm, which it has invested $25 billion to develop, can be successfully launched and mass-produced, the cost considerations of major customers such as Apple and Nvidia may also become an important factor.

TSMC is currently a leading foundry, and it has invested a lot in R&D and talent. Wei Zhejia revealed that from 2014 to date, TSMC has spent 1.1 trillion dollars to expand its production capacity, and invested more than 10 billion dollars last year and this year. He also said that in order to support TSMC's advanced process, the number of R&D personnel has increased threefold in ten years. Last year, there were nearly 6,200 R&D personnel, nearly twice as many as in 2008. These 6,200 people are only engaged in R&D and not in production. He also emphasized that TSMC has 1,500 design talents, and it may be successful to do design business, but it will not do so because no partners will compete with customers.

TSMC's current main competitor, Samsung, is also stepping up the mass production of 7nm. It is reported that it will start trial production of 7nm EUV in the second half of this year, and large-scale production will be put into autumn 2019.

Translated by Leifeng.com, via digitimes

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