TSMC Updates its Silicon Menu

First 7nm chips, EUV migration described

Rick Merritt, EETimes
9/14/2017 00:01 AM EDT

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — TSMC reported progress in 7nm and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and bolstered a planar process that competes with fully depleted silicon-on-insulator at an annual event here. It also gave updates on its work in packaging and platforms for key market segments.

The foundry, celebrating its 30^th anniversary, expects to tape out more than ten 7nm chips this year and start volume production with the process next year. The chips include a quad ARM A72 core processor running at up to 4 GHz — possibly Huawei’s Kiron mobile processor — a CCIX development platform, and an unnamed ARM server processor.

TSMC sketched out what it called a relatively simple process of porting design rules and IP to an N7+ process using EUV it could put into production in 2019. The process can deliver 20 greater greater density, 8-10 percent higher speeds or 15-20 percent less power than its current N7 node. Compared to its 16FFC process, N7+ can enable 30 percent higher speed or 50 percent less power on an ARM A72 core, said Cliff Hou, vice president of R&D for design technology at TSMC.

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