In today’s earnings meeting, TSMC not only announced the Q3 quarterly results but also revealed the latest process progress, 3nm process demand has exceeded expectations, next year will be full volume production, while the 2nm process is also progressing well, with 2025 volume production. TSMC officially announced the 2nm process in June and revealed some technical details. Compared to the 3nm process, the 2nm speed is 10~15% faster at the same power consumption; and the power consumption is 25~30% lower at the same speed.
However, in terms of transistor density, the 2nm process is less satisfactory, compared to 3nm only 10%, far below the previous transistor density increase of at least 70%, which may be TSMC’s first time in the 2nm process to abandon FinFET transistors in favor of GAA transistors due to the first generation of the process will be conservative.
According to TSMC CEO Wei Zhejia, the 2nm process is progressing well and even exceeding expectations, although their current plan is still for mass production in 2025, with no plans to advance.
TSMC’s 2nm process should still be the first by Apple, this year’s A16 is 4nm, next year’s A17 and the year after A18 should be 3nm, 2025’s A19 chip is only possible with the 2nm process.
