TSMC Starts 2nm Process Development for Fast, Efficient Chips

At the start of this year we heard that TSMC was investing heavily in 5nm fabrication, and it's no secret that the next step after that is TSMC's 3nm process.The Taiwanese silicon manufacturer is looking beyond that process too, as it just announced to shareholders that it is starting development of its 2nm lithographic process, as spotted by DigiTimes.

Painstakingly few details are available about the 2nm process. All we know is that TSMC is starting development -- though it's safe to assume the end product will be very fast and more efficient than anything on the market today.

Currently, TSMC's 7nm process is in its peak, receiving huge numbers of orders from AMD for its Ryzen 3000-series CPUs and Navi graphics cards. Other customers include Apple, and although Huawei was to be included, that doesn't appear to be working out so well.

On the 5nm front, TSMC is working with EUV lithography, similar to what Samsung is accomplishing. The two chipmakers are neck-in-neck in the silicon race. According to DigiTimes, TSMC is expecting 10% of this year's revenue to come from its 5nm EUV lines.

After that, the 3nm process will take over, and TSMC expects mass production to start in 2022. 

Meanwhile, TSMC's CoWoS production lines are also reportedly at full capacity, packaging chips with multiple dies side-by-side onto single silicon interposers using a 2.5D packaging method.