Strong demand, TSMC increases 5nm production to 150,000 pieces/month, 3nm production later this year

IT House April 1 news, according to wccftech reports, semiconductor manufacturing company TSMC (TSMC) has increased shipments of its 5nm process technology family. It’s the most advanced technology in TSMC’s portfolio, and the fab hopes to move toward a 3nm process later this year. DigiTimes claims that the increase in production is to boost orders from several companies in the personal computing industry, especially after reports that South Korean chipmaker Samsung Foundry is currently facing production problems.

Samsung and TSMC are the only two companies in the world that provide chip manufacturing services to third parties, and in this duopoly, TSMC has a strong lead thanks to its consistently reliable deliveries and regular technology upgrades status.

DigiTimes reports that TSMC has increased production of its 5nm process to 150,000 per month from an earlier 120,000, marking a 25% increase in production. The increase was due to customer orders outside of consumer electronics companies Apple and MediaTek.

TSMC’s reported ramp-up of 5nm products follows rumors earlier this week that chip designer AMD’s lineup of Zen 4 desktop CPUs could enter mass production as early as this month. According to reports, the Zen 4 processor uses TSMC’s 5nm manufacturing technology and is expected to hit the market within 4 to 5 months after production is complete.

In addition to the 5nm production schedule, DigiTimes also reported strong customer interest in TSMC’s 4nm process family. The 4nm technology is a variant of the 5nm node and they are part of TSMC’s N5 lineup.

Among the companies that have shown interest in 4nm is Nvidia, an American semiconductor design company. Digitimes reports that Nvidia has paid TSMC a hefty sum to preserve 4nm capacity, much of which is expected to go to Apple, TSMC’s most powerful customer.

In addition to NVIDIA, Qualcomm has also developed a strong interest in 4nm technology. This stems from production issues at Samsung’s foundries, which are said to be looking for alternatives because Samsung’s chip-making technology cannot provide enough yield. In the semiconductor industry, yield refers to the number of chips in a silicon wafer that can pass quality control tests. The higher the yield, the less the company has to pay to procure semiconductors from factories like TSMC or Samsung.

The Digitmes report also believes that in addition to the strong process output, another reason for Nvidia to make this switch is the brand image of the Taiwanese factory. It is widely believed by many observers that TSMC gives AMD a manufacturing advantage over its larger rival Intel Corp, while Nvidia is thought to be looking to cash in on goodwill. In contrast to AMD, which has to rely on a company like TSMC for its manufacturing needs, Intel uses its own facilities, and the company has recently struggled to make it run at scale.

Finally, TSMC’s 3nm manufacturing process will still be in production later this year. The variant entering production is called “N3B,” and Digitims expects initial production to be between 40,000 and 50,000 units per month. After “N3B”, there will soon be an advanced variant called “N3E”, which is expected to enter production in 2023.