TSMC aims to quadruple 5nm production by 2023

Chip manufacturer TSMC wants to quadruple the capacity of its 5nm process by 2023 compared to a year ago. In the coming years, the company mainly wants to make those chips, while in the meantime it is starting the process for 3nm chips.

TSMC talks about the expected production scale-up at its own Technology Symposium, which AnandTech writes about. In particular, the company plans to expand the capacity of the 5nm process, in addition to the upcoming 3nm process being developed this year. The capacity will increase to double this year compared to 2021. In 2022 there should be a growth of 3.5 times, and in 2023 a growth of four times the capacity of 2020.

TSMC has been releasing 5nm chips in mass since last year. Since then, 500,000 N5 wafers have been made, which amounts to several hundred million chips. For the time being, these are mainly chips for Apple’s iPhone 12 and the M1 chip for the Macs, but in the future other manufacturers will also have such chips made by the company. The increased capacity is made possible, among other things, by the construction of a new factory in Arizona. Reuters reported in May that TSMC wants to set up a fab there where 20,000 5nm wafers can be made every month. In total, TSMC would like to invest 82 billion euros in new production capacity over the next three years.

The process for 7nm chips is said to be ‘mature’ by now. Although TSMC still supplies most of these chips, its predicted growth is only 14 percent. More than a billion chips have now been released at 7nm, the company says.