TSMC and Samsung, two contract manufacturers of chips, have upgraded their manufacturing processes to 5nm, and the more advanced 3nm is progressing according to plan. TSMC's 3nm chip production plant has been completed and is scheduled to start trial production this year and mass production in the second half of next year.However, the latest news from the industry chain shows that both TSMC and Samsung have encountered challenges in their research and development of the 3nm process. They have encountered different key technical bottlenecks, and their development progress has to be delayed.
TSMC's 3NM process will still use sophisticated FinFET technology, CEO Richard Wei revealed on an earnings call with analysts.Samsung's 3nm process is different, with foreign media saying it will use the surround gate transistor technology (GAA).
It is unclear how much the key bottlenecks in TSMC and Samsung's 3NM process will affect the development process, or whether they will affect the final production date.
As for TSMC's 3NM process, foreign media previously reported that they have prepared four waves of production capacity. Most of the first wave of production capacity will be reserved for apple, a major customer for many years, and the last three waves will be ordered by Qualcomm, Intel, Cering, Nvidia, AMD and other manufacturers.