TSMC Expects Most 7nm Customers to Move to 6nm Density

TSMC in its quarterly earnings name expressed confidence in that the majority of its 7 nm (N7) course of manufacturing node prospects could be trying to make the transition to their 6 nm (N6) course of. In truth, the corporate expects that node to grow to be the most important goal for quantity ordering (and thus manufacturing) amongst its prospects, because the new N6 fabrication expertise will convey a few kind of “backwards compatibility” with design instruments and semiconductor designs that producers have already invested in for its N7 node, thus permitting for value financial savings for its shoppers.

This is regardless of TSMC’s N6 course of with the ability to benefit from excessive ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) to decrease manufacturing complexity. This decreasing is achieved by the truth that much less exposures of the silicon are required for multi-patterning – which is required at the moment as TSMC’s N7 makes use of solely deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography. Interestingly, TSMC expects different shoppers to choose up its N7+ manufacturing node that are not already utilizing their 7nm node – the necessity to develop new instruments and lesser design compatibility between its N7 and N7+ nodes in contrast no N7 and N6 being the justification. TSMC’s N7+ would be the first node to leverage EUV, utilizing as much as 4 EUVL layers, whereas N6 expands it as much as 5 layers, and the upcoming N5 cranks EUVL as much as fourteen (permitting for 14 layers.)