Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is to open a new cutting-edge research-and-development (R&D) center in Hsinchu next year to develop 2-nanometer (nm) technology to secure its technology leadership.
The world’s biggest contract chipmaker said it is also seeking to acquire land adjacent to the new R&D center to build a production fab for 2-nanometer chips.
This is the first time that TSMC has disclosed details about its plans to move into 2-nanometer technology.
Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE
The company has invested heavily in R&D and advanced capacity, offering 7-nanometer chips in 2018 and 5-nanometer chips this year, with plans to commence volume production of 3-nanometer chips in the second half of 2022, to maintain its edge over competitors such as Samsung Electronics Co.
The 2-nanometer chips are one generation more advanced than 3-nanometer ones.
The new R&D center, dubbed TSMC’s “Bell Lab,” is to house 8,000 scientists and engineers to develop next-generation chip technologies, TSMC senior vice president Kevin Zhang (張曉強) yesterday told an online technology symposium.
It is to be composed of two R&D sections — R1 and R2 — and one office building, the company said.
R1 is under construction and is to become operational next year, Zhang said.
It will serve as the base for TSMC to explore 2-nanometer technology and future generation technologies, TSMC senior vice president Y.P. Chin (秦永沛) said.
TSMC has spent more than US$10 billion a year on expanding advanced technology capacity over the past few years to meet customers’ demand, Chin said.
The investment allowed TSMC to increase its advanced technology capacity at a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent from 2016 to this year, he said.
To cope with robust demand, the chipmaker has continued to expand its 7-nanometer technology capacity, which is expected to be 3.5 times bigger than when it introduced the technology in 2018, Chin said.
The 5-nanometer technology capacity is forecast to grow 1.8 times in 2022, compared with this year’s capacity, he added.
To date, TSMC has shipped more than 1 billion 7-nanometer chips, the company said.
“If you have a 5G phone, most likely the phone is powered by TSMC’s 7-nanometer chips,” Zhang said.
As semiconductor technology is evolving rapidly and becoming increasingly complex, TSMC has been boosting R&D spending to ensure it is able to offer the most advanced technologies to its clients now and for the years to come, Zhang said.
The chipmaker spent US$2.96 billion on R&D last year, up 3.86 percent from 2018, Chang’s presentation showed.
Its R&D headcount also rose to 5,901 last year from 5,609 in 2018, it showed.
Tainan is a major manufacturing hub for the company’s advanced technologies.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
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