TSMC plans to shut down some EUV lithography machines to save power due to oversupply of advanced processes

EUV lithography machines are core equipment in semiconductor manufacturing. Only ASML can produce them. The price of a single machine is about 1 billion RMB. Previously, Samsung, TSMC and other companies were scrambling to buy them. However, the semiconductor situation has changed this year. TSMC plans to shut down EUV lithography machines because they consume too much power. According to a source from the industry chain, the utilization rate of advanced process capacity has begun to decline, and after evaluation, the decline will continue for a period of time. TSMC plans to shut down some EUV equipment from the end of the year to save the huge power consumption of EUV equipment.

It is understood that TSMC currently has about 80 EUV lithography machines, which are mainly used for advanced processes of 7nm, 5nm and below. It will also mass-produce 3nm processes in September this year, all of which require EUV lithography machines. However, with the decline in demand for products such as PCs, mobile phones, and graphics cards, chips produced by advanced processes are bound to be affected.

Apple's A16 processor for this year's iPhone 14 Pro series is not in a hurry to use the 3nm process and is still using the 4nm process. In addition, Apple has canceled its plan to produce the first-generation 3nm chips due to 3nm energy efficiency issues.

Compared with the previous DUV lithography machine, EUV lithography machine requires the use of high-energy lasers, and the light will be refracted multiple times, resulting in great losses. The early efficiency was only 0.02%, and now mass production is said to be able to achieve an efficiency of 2%, but it also means that most of the electricity will be consumed.

The EUV lithography machine requires about 30,000 kWh of electricity per day to produce, and about 10 million kWh per year, making it a real energy hog.