In the past few years, Moore’s Law has stopped being true all the time. The semiconductor industry isn’t rapidly advancing as fast as we might like. The growth has halted in the semiconductor process. Several companies have faced a lot of issues with the rapidly shrinking processes. Intel has finally entered the 10nm process era and will transfer to 7nm in the following year. TSMC and Samsung have completed the layout of the 7nm process and have rushed to 5nm and 3nm. AMD has successfully launched it’s 7nm Ryzen 3rd gen process this year but they too rely on TSMC for their designs etc. TSMC 2nm process might be on the horizon now!
Now, TSMC has officially announced that it will officially launch the research and development of the 2nm process. The factory is located in the Southern Science and Technology Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It is expected that TSMC 2nm process will be put into production in 2024. If we consider the fact that TSMC has already made significant inroads with the 7nm+ process which will show up later this year then too the 2024 timeline seems quite ambitious.
Table of Contents
TSMC process development details
According to the indicators given by TSMC, the 2nm process is an important node. The Metal Track is maintained at 5x as well as 3nm, while the Gate Pitch is reduced to 30nm and the Metal Pitch is reduced to 20nm. It will be 23% smaller than 3nm.
TSMC did not disclose the technology and materials required for the 2nm process. Looking at the schematic diagram of the transistor structure and the current there seems to be no significant change. It is a miracle to continue to squeeze the silicon semiconductor process to such a degree. After this, the next logical progression in the silicon process will be 1nm.
Of course, before that, TSMC will continue to experiment with multiple process nodes such as 7nm+, 6nm, 5nm, and 3nm.
TSMC timeline for process development
Among them, 7nm+ will be the first to introduce EUV lithography technology, which has been put into mass production. 6nm will only be an upgraded version of 7nm. Trial production is expected in the first quarter of next year. 5nm will be the full introduction of EUV lithography. There has begun risk trial production, which would be completed by the end of next year. Before mass production of Apple A14, AMD fifth gen Ryzen i.e. Zen 4 is expected to adopt this process. 3nm is expected to be up for trial production in 2021. Mass production is expected to commence by 2022.
Samsung has already planned the 3nm process, and it is expected to enter mass production in 2021. But as is visible from the above chart there has been quite a lot of performance vs power consumption changes in both the companies’ processes. Now, who would do a better job, in the long run, is still to be seen but TSMC has definitely been leading on the performance front!
So, guys, this was it for this tech update! Are you excited about the TSMC 2nm process? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Keep visiting for more such awesome posts, internet tips, gadget reviews, and remember we cover,
“Everything under the Sun!”
Follow Inspire2rise on Twitter. | Follow Inspire2rise on Facebook. | Follow Inspire2rise on YouTube.
