Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it plans to start initial chip production using cutting-edge 5-nanometer technology in 2019, possibly allowing the company to pull ahead of peers.
TSMC this year entered the technology development phase for 5-nanometer technology, company co-chief executive officer Mark Liu (劉德音) told the chipmaker’s annual supply chain management forum.
The Hsinchu-based firm has about 6,000 research and development (R&D) personnel working on the development of 5-nanometer technology, Liu said.
Photo: CNA
“TSMC has set a high and aggressive target as its [5-nanometer] technology road map shows,” Clark Tseng (曾瑞榆), a senior semiconductor analyst with Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, said by telephone. “It is likely that TSMC will lead its competitors in ramping 5-nanometer technology, as no clear road map has been disclosed by Samsung Electronics yet.”
TSMC this year plans to increase R&D spending by 15 percent from last year, alongside a capital expenditure of US$10 billion, to boost its technology leadership, Liu said.
The chipmaker spent US$2.21 billion on R&D last year, the company’s financial statement showed.
TSMC has also tasked several hundred R&D personnel with the initial development of 3-nanometer technology and is evaluating a fab site for 3-nanometer chip production, he added.
“We are optimistic about 3-nanometer” development, Liu said.
As for 7-nanometer technology, Liu said the company is confident that it will stay ahead of its major competitors in ramping up chip production using the advanced technology.
TSMC is to start initial chip production using 7-nanometer technology at the end of this quarter, followed by mass production next year.
Regarding 10-nanometer technology, Liu said 3,000 engineers and 1,500 technicians are working to ship a small volume of chips this quarter.
The volume will increase rapidly from the second quarter, he said.
TSMC has reportedly been tapped as a major chip supplier using the 10-nanometer technology for Apple Inc’s new iPhone models.
The company declined to comment on the reports.
Solid technological capabilities have helped TSMC gain a 65 to 70 percent share of the world’s 16-nanometer chip market and 80 percent share of the 28-nanometer chip market, the firm said.
South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co yesterday launched its first Exynos processor built on the company’s 10 nanometer FinFet process technology, the company said in a statement.
The advanced processor is in mass production, it said.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
RSS