TSMC held a 3nm mass production and expansion ceremony in Tainan Science Park on December 29, officially announcing the launch of 3nm mass production. Samsung opened its N3 (3nm) process chip manufacturing a few months ago, but TSMC’s yields are significantly better.
According to Business Next, analysts and experts specializing in semiconductors estimate that TSMC’s N3 yields could be as low as 60% to 70% or as high as 75% to 80%, which is already quite good for the first products. Meanwhile, financial analyst Dan Nystedt tweeted that TSMC’s current N3 yields are similar to N5 yields at the beginning of the ramp, which could be as high as 80 percent.
In contrast, Samsung foundries are seeing yields ranging from 10% to 20% in the early stages of the 3GAE process, and there is no improvement.
Given TSMC’s limited number of N3 designs currently in commercial production (presumably barely more than three ICs) and the fact that yield-related data is a trade secret for the foundry and its customers, it is not yet possible to make specific judgments about how high or low TSMC’s N3 yields are.
In addition, given the rumors surrounding the initial N3 node (also known as N3B), Apple may be the only company using this technology, with other developers expected to use the somewhat more stable N3E improvement process.
TSMC will use the capacity-limited N3 node process, then move to the more stable and efficient full production N3E later in 2023, followed by N3P in 2024, a year in which TSMC will also put its 2nm GAA process into pilot production at its Hsinchu plant, and mass production in 2025.
TSMC’s official website shows that its 3nm process is the next full-generation process after 5nm, with the best PPA and transistor technology. Compared to the 5nm process, the 3nm process will increase logic density by about 70%, increase speed by 10-15% at the same power consumption, or reduce power consumption by 25-30% at the same speed.
