Foreign media "Extremetech" reported that FinFET transistor technology for chip manufacturing has been used since 2011, but as nodes continue to shrink, FinFET transistor technology will be replaced by other technologies. TSMC's updated technology roadmap states that it will move to Nanosheet transistor technology when it is ready to produce 2nm, and Intel and Samsung have announced similar plans.
The "EEtimes" report discusses TSMC's future plans to start 3nm mass production at the end of this year, confirming that the 3nm process will not use nanosheet technology. Nanosheets are gate-all-around (GAA) transistors that have floating transistor fins around the gate, hence the name. Before Intel announced the RibbonFET plan, the technology is similar to nanosheets. TSMC expects mass production of 2nm nanosheets to begin in 2025, but Intel's blueprint is for RibbonFETs to be unveiled in the third quarter of 2024. Samsung has switched to the Nanowire process in the 3nm process and announced mass production in the first half of the year.
Comparing the mass production process of TSMC and Intel, the definition of "mass production" is slightly different from experience. Mass production was announced shortly before Intel products hit the retail market. TSMC sells products to customers, and customers integrate them by themselves, so it will take a long time for TSMC to announce that it will take a long time for commercial products to appear.
TSMC will not start mass production of the 2nm process in a short period of time, because the scheduled 3nm process will take a long time. Zhang Xiaoqiang, senior deputy general manager of business development, pointed out that TSMC's 3nm process will become a popular node, and it is a long node, and there will be a lot of demand. However, from 3nm to 2nm, due to the transistor structure, nanosheets have unique advantages in improving energy saving and computing efficiency. Observe customer products and require higher computing performance and energy saving effect, and will first turn to the 2nm process. At that time, TSMC will also sell the 3-nanometer process together with the 2-nanometer process.
Samsung is already working on a GAA technology 3nm process that seems to put Samsung in the lead. However, market analysts believe that leaving FinFET too early may scare customers such as Qualcomm and Nvidia, because as long as there is a major technology shift, problems are likely to occur, especially when it comes to production, it may stimulate customers to stop on FinFET technology 3nm process, or wait until The GAA technology design is more mature and then adopted, so that TSMC can benefit from selling 3nm and 2nm processes at the same time.
Nonetheless, the gradual move away from FinFET technology should lead to significant improvements in chip transistor density and efficiency. Samsung pointed out that compared with 7nm process technology, the 3nm nanowire design increases transistor density by 80%, and also improves performance by 30% or improves energy efficiency by 50%.