TSMC announced in 2020 that it would launch the development of a 2 nanometer chip manufacturing process, but without giving many details about the node or saying when he intended to start production. Until now, when the company has confirmed that it will be based on a new transistor structure for its manufacture. Mind you, this will make the chips that use them won’t be available until 2026year in which these chips will arrive.
The news about these chips has been confirmed by the TSMC CEO CC Weiwhich according to Tom’s Hardware has pointed out that the company’s 2-nanometer node will be based on GAA transistors (gate-all-around). Of course, he has not given many details about it. It has not even revealed the name that will be given to the architecture for marketing tasks. But it has confirmed that the manufacturing process for these chips will continue to be based on extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), with a numerical aperture of 0.33.
If all goes according to plan, the technology will be ready to begin risk-stage production by the end of 2024, and to begin high-volume manufacturing by the end of 2025. This means that TSMC customers should receive their first chips. based on 2-nanometer technology in 2026. Wei has pointed out that “by the end of 2024 it will be in risky production. By 2025, probably near its second half or towards the end, it will be in production. It is our forecast.”
TSMC’s 2-nanometer schedule has always been a bit of a mystery. When it first started talking about this technology, the company only stated that it would be adopted in a new facility in Taiwan. Specifically, they would be near Baoshan, in Hsinchu County, and there would be a new factory there that would be built in four phases. Taiwan authorities gave the green light to the project in mid-2021, and only then that its construction would begin in early 2022.
TSMC’s board of directors, which is taking a very cautious approach with its 2- and 3-nanometer nodes, approved construction of the plant in early 2022, so today we expect it to have already started. If so, the skeleton of the factory is expected to be ready by mid-2023 and the equipment is expected to be installed and ready to start production in the second half of 2024.
After TSMC and its partners complete all necessary preparations, such as the risky production phase, the 2-nanometer technology and the new factory would be ready for production by the end of 2025. And since the cycle times for modern manufacturing processes are very long, taking even more than three months, it will take months for TSMC to offer the first 2-nanometer chip units to its major customers. That is why they will arrive in your hands in 2026, and the first devices that integrate them will be available somewhat later that same year. That is, in four years.
