Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plans to expand extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plans to expand extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools for its next-generation 3 nm (N3) node process.
TSMC was the first company to use ASMLs EUV lithography machines for high-volume production and now has at least three processes that use EUV for select layers. They use EUV lithography for its N7+, N6, and N5 nodes.
TSMCs 2nd generation 7 nm technology (N7+) uses EUV for up to four layers in order to reduce its use of multi-patterning techniques when building highly complex circuits. The 6 nm process (N6) is for customers to re-use IP designed for 1st generation 7 nm, per the report. TSMCs 5 nm process (N5) can use EUV for up to 14 layers. 5nm has significant increase in transistor density and performance enhancements.
2nd generation 5 nm (N5P) and 4 nm (N4) fabrication processes are based 5 nm technology and will have performance and power benefits. N5P will be available in 2021. N4 chips will have volume production in 2022.
Next-generation 3 nm process (N3) will be a full node improvement over N5. N3 will have 70 percent logic density gain, 15-percent performance gain, and 30-percent power reduction over the 5-nm process. N3 will use EUV over 20 layers.
Nextbigfuture covered Taiwan Semiconductors plans from 2017. TSMC has kept on track with its Moore’s Law roadmap to reach 3-nanometer chips by 2022.
Intel 7nm process is four years behind TSMC.
TSMC’s 2nm process will use a different transistor design. This design is called Multi-Bridge Channel Field Effect (MBCFET) transistor. It adds on to the previous FinFET designs.
The 2 nanometer process will start trial production in mid-2023 and mass production in 2024.
TSMC expects yield rate for its 2nm process node to reach a staggering 90% in 2023. Samsung will use MBCFET for 3 nanometer. Samsung expects the 3nm transistors to reduce power consumption by 30% and 45% respectively and improve performance by 30% over 7nm designs.
SOURCES- Taiwan News, Seeking Alpha, WCCFtechWritten by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com