Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will build the world’s first 3nm fab in the Tainan Science Park in southern Taiwan, where the company does the bulk of its manufacturing: about a year ago, TSMC said it planned to build its next fab at the 5nm to 3nm technology node as early as 2022. The more recent one-paragraph announcement from TSMC on Sept. 29 didn’t provide a timeframe for the opening of the 3-nm fab.



TSMC, Samsung and Intel have been in a tight race to lead process technology development and grab profits from fabless customers such as Apple and Qualcomm. This year, the leading-edge pure-play foundry market in sub-40-nm nodes is expected to surge by a hefty $3.3 billion, market research firm IC Insights said in a Sept. 19 report. Almost all of the pure-play foundry growth is forecast to come from leading-edge production in 2017, and most of the foundry profits will also come from the finer feature sizes, the report said.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – TSMC to Build World’s First 3nm Fab in Taiwan