These months have been eventful for the processing industry, with tech companies constantly releasing new products. The influx of devices hasn’t stopped, as TSMC has plans to move 3-nanometer development to the US, and that’s not the only news. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has been in the news a lot lately, with many companies releasing products that incorporate the chipmaker’s semiconductors and process nodes.
Since 2020, the Taiwanese chipmaker has been reliably supplying AMD with 5nm processors and even a new 4nm node for NVIDIA’s recent Ada Lovelace graphics cards.
The iPhone 14 also uses TSMC’s 4nm process node. However, as its biggest customer, Apple often gets its latest and greatest developments from suppliers. Therefore, Apple plans to switch to TSMC’s 3-nanometer process in the iPhone 15.
Currently, TSMC only produces 3nm nodes in Taiwan. While this won’t necessarily cause any major problems or blockages in Apple’s development process, there are ways to simplify it. The two companies have an idea: move all of TSMC’s 3-nanometer production to the US.
In 2020, TSMC began planning to build a processing and development facility within the United States. The original estimate was for construction to be completed in 2021. However, after two delays, the deadline is now the first quarter of 2023. Assuming they fit this time frame, the iPhone 15 models will feature a brand new 3nm processor made in the US.
In related news, a TSMC fab in Taiwan has begun to focus on finding a breakthrough to reach the 1nm process node. Of course, as processors become more compact, they become harder to sustainably produce. As a result, TSMC engineers had to find new materials and methods to scale down to 1nm and smaller processes.
To this end, TSMC is collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and National Taiwan University (NTU) to research and develop new methods. After extensive engineering and testing, they discovered that combining “two-dimensional materials” and “semimetallic bismuth” yields extremely low electrical resistance, which may overcome the most challenging aspects of producing the 1-nanometer node.
