Apple, TSMC and the Seven Customers of 16FF+

Peter Clarke, Electronics360
14 November 2014

Foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has announced that its 16nm FinFET Plus (16FF+) process is now in risk production and that it expects volume production to being around July 2015. That should be about six months behind the original 16FF process, according to earlier statements. TSMC has also quoted seven customers of the 16FF+ process in a press release, presumably hoping to demonstrate that 16FF+ is a safe bet and to encourage yet more customers turn away from the blandishments of the Samsung-Globalfoundries and Intel FinFET offerings at 14nm.

Some are arguing that this acceleration and mass support for 16FF+ means that TSMC is not going to lag Samsung in FinFET process introduction and provides encouragement that TSMC can win the next-generation Apple A9 application processor business.

Click here to read more ...