TSMC
Although TSMC can't claim to be the first fab to use extreme UV (EUV) lithography – that title goes to Samsung – they do get to claim to be the largest. As a result, the company has developed significant experience with EUV over the years, allowing TSMC to refine how they use EUV tooling to both improve productivity/uptime, and to cut down on the costs of using the ultra-fine tools. As part of the company's European Technology Symposium this week, they went into a bit more detail on their EUV usage history, and their progress on further integrating EUV into future process nodes. When TSMC started making chips using EUV lithography in 2019 on its N7+ process (for Huawei's HiSilicon), it held 42% of the...
TSMC & Broadcom Develop 1,700 mm2 CoWoS Interposer: 2X Larger Than Reticles
With transistor shrinks slowing and demand for HPC gear growing, as of late there has been an increased interest in chip solutions larger than the reticle size of a...
18 by Anton Shilov on 3/4/2020TSMC Boosts CapEx by $1 Billion, Expects N5 Node to Be Major Success
TSMC is on track to begin high-volume production of chips using its 5 nm technology in the coming months, the company said in its conference call last week. While...
40 by Anton Shilov on 1/22/2020An Interview with AMD’s CTO Mark Papermaster: ‘There’s More Room At The Top’
On the back of a very busy 2019, AMD is gaining market share and is now a performance leader in a lot of CPU segments. The company has executed...
68 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 12/30/2019Early TSMC 5nm Test Chip Yields 80%, HVM Coming in H1 2020
Today at the IEEE IEDM Conference, TSMC is presenting a paper giving an overview of the initial results it has achieved on its 5nm process. This process is going...
64 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 12/11/2019AMD Q4: 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X, Threadripper Up To 32-Core 3970X, Coming November 25th
AMD is set to close out the year on a high note. As promised, the company will be delivering its latest 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X processor, built with two...
171 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 11/7/2019GlobalFoundries and TSMC Sign Broad Cross-Licensing Agreement, Dismiss Lawsuits
GlobalFoundries and TSMC have announced this afternoon that they have signed a broad cross-licensing agreement, ending all of their ongoing legal disputes. Under the terms of the deal, the...
27 by Anton Shilov on 10/28/2019TSMC: 5nm on Track for Q2 2020 HVM, Will Ramp Faster Than 7nm
TSMC’s 5 nm (N5) manufacturing technology is projected to provide significant benefits when it comes to performance, power, and area scaling, which is why the contract maker of semiconductors...
27 by Anton Shilov on 10/23/2019TSMC Radically Boosts CapEx to Expand Production Capacities, To Reach $14B For 2019
Forecasting strong demand for its 5 nm and 7 nm class process technologies in the coming years, TSMC has announced that it's increasing its capital expenditure for 2019 by...
18 by Anton Shilov on 10/18/2019Samsung & TSMC Develop 8nm & 7nm Automotive-Grade Nodes
As vehicles are getting ‘smarter’ and gaining autopilot capabilities, it is easy to predict that the demand for higher-performing and more complex automotive SoCs will be growing rapidly in...
29 by Anton Shilov on 10/14/2019TSMC: N7+ EUV Process Technology in High Volume, 6nm (N6) Coming Soon
TSMC announced on Monday that its customers have started shipping products based on chips made by TSMC using its N7+ (2nd Generation 7 nm with EUV) process technology that...
27 by Anton Shilov on 10/8/2019TSMC Counter-sues GlobalFoundries: Accuses US Fab of Infringing Patents Across Numerous Process Nodes
In a not-unexpected move, TSMC late on Monday filed a lawsuit against GlobalFoundries, its pure-play foundry rival, accusing the manufacturer of patent infringment. In the suit, a response to...
24 by Anton Shilov on 10/1/2019Arm & TSMC Showcase 7nm Chiplet, Eight A72 at 4GHz on CoWoS Interposer
Arm and TSMC this week unveiled their jointly developed proof-of-concept chip that combines two quad-core Cortex-72-based 7 nm chiplets on TSMC’s Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) interposer. The two chips are connected...
26 by Anton Shilov on 9/27/2019TSMC Responds to Lawsuit by GlobalFoundries: Allegations Are Baseless
TSMC has responded to GlobalFoundries accusations of patents infringements. The world’s largest foundry said that it would defend itself in courts and that it considered allegations as baseless. The...
62 by Anton Shilov on 8/27/2019GlobalFoundries Sues TSMC Over Patent Infringement; Apple, Qualcomm, Others Named Defendants
GlobalFoundries has filed a lawsuit against TSMC and its clients in the USA and Germany alleging the world’s largest contract maker of semiconductors of infringing 16 of its patents...
97 by Anton Shilov on 8/26/2019Hot Chips 31 Keynote Day 2: Dr. Phillip Wong, VP Research at TSMC (1:45pm PT)
The keynote for the second day is from TSMC, with Dr. Phillip Wong taking the stage to talk about the latest developments in TSMC's research and portfolio. The talk...
12 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 8/20/2019Hot Chips 31 Live Blogs: Intel Spring Crest NNP-T on 16nm TSMC
Intel is showing us some of the design features of its new ML training product, Spring Crest.
4 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 8/19/2019TSMC Announces Performance-Enhanced 7nm & 5nm Process Technologies
TSMC has quietly introduced a performance-enhanced version of its 7 nm DUV (N7) and 5 nm EUV (N5) manufacturing process. The company’s N7P and N5P technologies are designed for...
36 by Anton Shilov on 7/30/2019TSMC: 3nm EUV Development Progress Going Well, Early Customers Engaged
Development of new fabrication technologies never stops at leading-edge companies such as TSMC. Therefore, it is not surprising to hear the annoucement that development of TSMC’s 3nm node is...
76 by Anton Shilov on 7/23/2019TSMC: Most 7nm Clients Will Transition to 6nm
In this week's quarterly earnings conference call, TSMC’s revealed that the company expects most of its 7nm "N7" process customers to eventually transition to its forthcoming 6nm "N6" manufacturing...
39 by Anton Shilov on 5/1/2019TSMC: No Plans to Buy Rivals at The Moment
Although TSMC expects demand for chips to increase going forward and despite an ongoing trend towards consolidation on the foundry market, the company has commented that it currently has...
4 by Anton Shilov on 4/22/2019