TSMC has been stepping up the development of its advanced packaging business, with plans to open in 2021-2022 two new fabs dedicated to advanced packaging incorporating its newly unveiled 3D Fabric wafer level system integration technology platform, according to industry sources.
TSMC expects to start volume production at a new packaging fab in Chunan, northern Taiwan in second-half 2021, and another one at Southern Taiwan Science Park in 2022, the sources said.
Both fabs will adopt TSMC's 3D Fabric platform integrating frontend 3D SoIC stacking technology and backend InFo and CoWoS processes, the sources said. The platform, a strong rival of Samsung's newest X-Cube 3D IC packaging solution, will go in tandem with advanced manufacturing nodes to further cement TSMC's partnerships with major clients and thicken its profits starting in 2022, the sources said.
TSMC's leaderhip in the 7nm segment is extending to 5nm, with its capacity for the process almost fully booked by Apple through the end of 2020 after starting commercial runs in second-quarter 2020, the sources said. The foundry giant is fabricating A14 Bionic processors for iPad Air and upcoming new iPhone devices as well as Apple Silicon processors for new Mac series, all with 5nm technology, the sources added.
TSMC is expected to ramp up its monthly 5nm capacity through 2021, as AMD, Xilinx, Broadcom, Nvidia and Qualcomm will reportedly have their new chips fabricated with the latest node available for commercial run.
It has also unveiled clear roadmaps for advanced manufacturing processes, planning to roll out enhanced 5nm version N5P in 2021 and enter volume production of 4nm in 2022 and 3nm in second-half 2022. The company has also decided to adopt GAA (gate-all-around) transistors instead of FinFET for its 2nm process set to start mass production in second-half 2020 at the earliest, the sources said.
Samsung's 5nm process is not expected to enter volume production until early 2021 although it has landed big orders from Qualcomm for manufacturing Sanpdragon 875 APs and X60 modem chips, the sources said. Qualcomm will return to TSMC for 5nm Snapdragon 885 next year, the sources noted.
Samsung has also landed big orders from Qualcomm and Nvidia for fabricating Snapdragon 750G and latest GPUs, respectively, but all with 8nm process, the sources said.
Article translated by Willis Ke
