TSMC details its 3nm Process Technology – Mass Production Planned for 2022

During the company;’s annual Technology Symposium, TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, has revealed the planned characteristics of their 3nm (N3) process node, which is due to enter risk production in 2021. 

Before 3nm, TSMC plans to release a 5nm (N5P) process node as well as a 4nm (4N) node, both of which will be enhanced version of 5nm, which has already entered high volume manufacturing. 5nm is due to offer a 5% frequency boost over 5nm or a 10% reduction in power consumption. 4nm will offer users additional EUV layers to reduce the number of required mask layers.

With 5nm, TSMC claims to offer 15% more performance at the same power draw as 7nm or a 30% power reduction at the same performance. Combine this with 5nm’s 1.8x increase in silicon density, and 5nm offers TSMC’s customers a lot of benefits over today’s 7nm node. With 3nm, TSMC plans to deliver a 25-30% power reduction while offering the same performance as 5nm, or a 10-15% increase in performance while offering the same power consumption with a 1.7x increase in silicon density. 

TSMC has also claimed that 5nm has a faster defect density learning curve than 7nm, which means that 5nm products will reach high yield rates faster than 7nm, which is great news for TSMC’s 5nm customers.   

When comparing 3nm to 7nm, TSMC’s planned 3nm node should offer customers a 3.06x increase in silicon density, up to 51% decrease in power consumption while offering the same performance levels or a up to a 32.25% increase in frequency at the same power consumption as 7nm. 3nm is due to enter risk production in 2021 and enter mass production level in the second half of 2022.