Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is in the news frequently as many companies use the semiconductor giant’s production lines. The Taiwanese chipmaker has been supplying 5nm processors to AMD since 2020 and even uses new 4nm processes for Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace RTX 40 series graphics cards. On the other hand, chip production of Apple’s iPhones takes place mainly at TSMC.Apple’s iPhone 14 series is part of TSMC’s 4nm process. TSMC’s current largest partner is Apple. For this reason, it is reported that the Cupertino-based company will switch to TSMC’s 3nm process with the iPhone 15 series, which will be released next year.
TSMC moves 3nm chip production to the USA
Currently, TSMC manufactures 3nm chips only in its home country of Taiwan. While this doesn’t cause major problems or delays in Apple’s development process, there are ways to make it easier. The two companies have only one idea in this area: TSMC to move all 3nm production to the USA.
In 2020, TSMC began the process of establishing a manufacturing and development facility in the USA. Initial estimates suggested that construction would be completed in 2021, but after delays, the plant is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023. On the other hand, it has been talked about for a long time that TSMC’s 3nm process will be used in the iPhone 15 series.Critical threshold exceeded for 1nm
In addition, it is reported that one of TSMC’s Taiwan-based facilities has made breakthroughs to reach the 1nm process process and has made progress in this field. Of course, as processors become more compact, it becomes increasingly difficult to produce them consistently. That’s why TSMC engineers have to find new materials and methods that will provide both efficiency and performance gains for 1nm and smaller processes.To this end, TSMC has partnered with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and National Taiwan University (NTU) to research and develop new methods. After a lot of engineering and testing, the combination of “2D materials” and “semi-metallic bismuth” has been successful. Thanks to this production technique, one of the biggest difficulties in the 1nm process, the problem of resistance, is overcome.
On the other hand, researchers report that 1nm chips are still years away from being used and sold in consumer products. We plan to move to 2nm chips by late 2024 or by 2025. Therefore, it may take 4-5 years with an optimistic estimate before we see 1nm chips. Who knows, maybe if these breakthroughs continue, we may even see picometer-sized (1000 pm = 1nm) chips before the end of the decade.
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