With all the brand new fabs being in-built Germany and Japan, in addition to the enlargement of manufacturing capability in China, TSMC is planning to increase its manufacturing capability for specialty applied sciences by 50% by 2027. As disclosed by the corporate throughout its European Technology Symposium this week, TSMC expects to want to not solely convert current capability to fulfill calls for for specialty processes, however even construct new (greenfield) fab area only for this goal. One of the massive drivers for this demand, in flip, can be TSMC’s subsequent specialty node: N4e, a 4nm-class ultra-low-power manufacturing node.
“In the past, we always did the review phase [for upcoming fabs], but for the first time in a long time at TSMC, we started building greenfield fab that will address the future specialty technology requirements,” stated Dr. Kevin Zhang, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Overseas Operations Office, on the occasion. “In the next four to five years, we actually going to grow our specialty capacity by up to 1.5x. In doing so we actually expanding the footprint of our manufacturing network to improve the resiliency of the overall fab supply chain.”
On high of its well-known main logic nodes like N5 and N3E, TSMC additionally gives a collection of specialty nodes for purposes similar to energy semiconductors, blended analog I/O, and ultra-low-power purposes (e.g. IoT). These are sometimes primarily based on the corporate’s trailing manufacturing processes, however whatever the underlying know-how, the capability demand for these nodes is rising proper alongside the demand for TSMC’s main logic nodes. All of which has required TSMC to reevaluate how they go about planning for capability on their specialty nodes.
TSMC’s enlargement technique within the current years has pursued a number of objectives. One of them has been to construct new fabs exterior of Taiwan; one other has been to usually increase manufacturing capability to fulfill future demand for every type of course of applied sciences – which is why the corporate is build up capability for specialty nodes.
At current, TSMC’s most superior specialty node is N6e, an N7/N6 variant that helps working voltages between 0.4V and 0.9V. With N4e, TSMC is voltages beneath 0.4V. Though for now, TSMC shouldn’t be disclosing a lot in the best way of technical particulars for the deliberate node; given the corporate’s historical past right here, we count on they will have extra to speak about subsequent 12 months as soon as the brand new course of is prepared.
