TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has long sought to stay a step ahead of an industry-wide plan that maps the long term technological development of the chip industry.
When the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors called for the spacing between transistors on a chip to be 45 nanometers, TSMC produced 40nm chips. Instead of choosing the 32nm “node” for its next generation chips, TSMC is moving to 28nm. More closely-placed transistors mean a more powerful chip.
TSMC on Wednesday announced it would continue this tradition by skipping the 22nm manufacturing process to move directly to 20nm, an ambition matched by few other chip manufacturers. Shang-yi Chiang, senior vice president of research and development, told a TSMC technology symposium in San Diego that TSMC would seek to begin preliminary production using 20nm technology in the second half of 2012.
Dr Chiang said part of the rationale behind the move was economics, rather than technology. “We have reached a point in advanced technology development where we need to be actively concerned about the [return on investment] of advanced technology. We also need to broaden our thinking beyond the process technology barriers that are inherent in every new node,” he said.
Two nanometers may not seem like much, but it highlights how TSMC, which commands half of the contract chipmaking market, is able to use its size to fund large-scale research to stay a step ahead of its competitors in technology.
