TSMC announced this afternoon that it will increase the capacity of mature special nodes by about 50% by 2025. The plan includes building numerous new fabs in Taiwan, Japan and China. This move will further intensify competition between TSMC and chip manufacturers such as GlobalFoundries, UMC and SMIC.
When talking about silicon lithography here at AnandTech, we primarily cover state-of-the-art nodes used to generate advanced CPUs, GPUs, and mobile SoCs. These are the devices that drive progress. However, power to new smart devices that are made with mature or special process techniques used with those sophisticated processors, or have a great impact on our daily lives and are becoming more important in recent years. There are hundreds of device types that supply. Demand for a variety of computing and smart devices has exploded in recent years, causing a global chip supply crisis that has affected automotive, consumer electronics, PCs, and many neighboring industries.
Modern smartphones, smart home appliances, and PCs already use dozens of chips and sensors, and the number (and complexity) of these chips continues to grow. These parts use more advanced special nodes. This is one of the reasons companies like TSMC have to increase the capacity of otherwise “old” nodes to meet the growing demand over the next few years.
But there is another market that is likely to explode. It’s a smart car. Automobiles are already using hundreds of chips, and automotive semiconductor content continues to grow. It is estimated that in a few years, the number of chips per car will be about 1,500 units, and someone will have to make them. That’s why TSMC’s rivals GlobalFoundries and SMIC have increased their investment in new capabilities over the last few years.
One of the largest capital investment budgets in the semiconductor industry, TSMC (only Samsung is challenging) has been relatively quiet in recent years on mature special node production plans. However, at the 2022 TSMC Technology Symposium, the company officially outlined the plan.
The company is investing in four new facilities for mature specialty nodes.
- Fab23 Phase 1 In Kumamoto, Japan. The semiconductor manufacturing facility uses TSMC’s N12, N16, N22, and N28 nodes to manufacture chips with a monthly capacity of up to 45,000 300mm wafers.
- Fab14 Phase 8 in Tainan, Taiwan.
- Fab22 Phase 2 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
- Fab16 Phase 1B in Nanjing, China. TSMC is currently manufacturing chips at N28 in China, but it was rumored that in the new phase, chips could be manufactured using more advanced nodes.
Increasing maturity / expertise by 50% over the next three years is a major change for the company and will make TSMC more competitive in the market. Perhaps more importantly, the company’s special nodes are primarily based on common nodes. This allows at least some companies to reuse IPs developed for computing or RFs for new applications.
“”[Our] Special technologies are very unique because they are based on a common technology platform [logic technology platform]Therefore, our unique strategy is to have many customers [common] Kevin Zhang, Senior Vice President of Business Development at TSMC, said: Supports IoT product applications. It needs to be built on a common platform so that IP can be fully shared across different product lines. This is so important to our customers that we want to provide an integrated platform to meet their market needs. Product perspective. ”
There are other benefits as well. For example, TSMC’s N6RF allows chip designers to combine RF with high-performance logic to build products such as modems and other more unique solutions. Many companies are already familiar with TSMC’s N6 logic nodes, so there is an opportunity to add RF connectivity to those that benefit from high performance. GlobalFoundries has a similar approach, but TSMC has an indisputable advantage here, as US-based foundries have no comparable to TSMC’s N6.
With a common platform approach and specialized technology for mature nodes, and a 50% capacity increase, TSMC will be able to offer more chips for smart and connected devices in the coming years. In addition, TSMC also benefits from significantly increasing the company’s revenue from mature, specialized nodes and increasing pressure on its rivals.
