TSMC: 3nm in 2021, and 5nm has satisfactory yields

Small, smaller, smallest. Where will it stop, 3nm is already coming in 2021, that's right next year. And we know that AMD is pursuing 5nm already. Coincidentally TSMC has shared a few words about both of them. 

TSMC's chief executive officer, CC Wei, mentioned its upcoming process technologies. As expected 5nm process has already gone into mass production, according to Wei. The foundry expects "a very fast and smooth ramp" of 5nm in the second half of 2020, thanks to robust chip demand for mobile and HPC device applications, Wei indicated. Wei reiterated his previous remarks that TSMC will see 5nm chip sales account for about 10% of its total wafer revenue this year. Wei added that 5nm will be a long-lived node like its 7nm, 16nm and 28nm processes.

For TSMC's N3 (namely 3nm process) technology, the foundry decided to continue using FinFET transistor structure, said company CEO CC Wei at an April 16 investors meeting. The N3 technology will be another "full node stride" from the foundry's N5 (5nm process), according to Wei.

AMD is rumored to use 5nm at TSMC for ZEN4 and RDNA3

As for TSMC's 7nm process offerings, consisting of the foundry's N7, N7+ and N6 with the latter two being EUV-based, sales generated from the process portfolio will account for more than 30% of the foundry's total wafer revenue in 2020, Wei said. Despite the corona pandemic, TSMC says it will continue to have confidence in the demand for its services for years to come.