It looks like we'll be enjoying 3nm products sooner than we thought, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) seeing yield improvements with its N3e production.
The news is coming from Retired Engineer, who tweeted that with TSMC's new 3nm node seeing yield improvements that volume production on N3e may start in Q2 2023 (April-June). Morgan Stanley has reportedly checked with equipment vendors that have said TSMC could "freeze" the N3e process flow, meaning the design parameters -- kinda like TSMC is saying its N3e has 'Gone Gold' and is ready for production -- yeah, that works.
Popular Now: Redditor buys an RTX 5070 Ti for $1,099 from Walmart, receives four graphics cards insteadRetired Engineer explained: "N3e production yield improves; schedule being pulled in: Our recent checks with equipment vendors suggest that TSMC may freeze the N3e process flow sooner - by the end of this March. This means that volume production of N3e may start in 2Q23, around a quarter ahead of the original schedule of 3Q23".
- Read more: TSMC to build Intel's new 3nm CPUs at new site in northern Taiwan
- Read more: TSMC talks more about 3nm, hitting nails into Intel's Big Blue coffin
- Read more: TSMC to spend tens of billions more on US-based 3nm chip factories
- Read more: TSMC will make Intel CPUs on 3nm in 2022, largest order of 3nm process
- Read more: TSMC is so ahead of the game, Samsung might not catch up until 2030
"The test production yield is much higher for N3e than N3b. Our checks suggest that the logic density of N3e is only ~8% less than that of the original N3 by cutting four EUV layers, yet it's still 60% denser than 5nm. All this makes N3e a competitive node for TSMC in terms of cost and timing".
