TSMC's 5nm process achieves 50 per cent yield

AMD is expected to be among the first customers for TSMC's 5nm chips, for its Zen 4 CPUs

TSMC's 5nm process node is developing at a fast pace, and has allegedly achieved a yield rate above 50 per cent.

That's according to a recent report by the China Times, which claimed that the upcoming process node of the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing firm is outperforming even its ramp up to 7nm chip production.

JK Wang, TSMC's senior vice president for fab operations, also confirmed yesterday that the company is set to enter mass production with its 5nm process in the second half of 2020.

In October, TSMC had said that it was boosting its capex spending for both 5nm and 7nm nodes, with a major part of the increase aimed at equipping fabs for 5nm production.

Last year, the company shared its plans to invest $25bn in shifting to 5nm process chip-making technology. The announcement came in the same week as Samsung gave a detailed look at its 7nm process at the VLSI Symposia in Hawaii.

AMD's Zen 4 CPUs are expected to be among the first in line for capacity for TSMC's 5nm, according to China Times. The other two customers could be Apple and HiSilicon, the report stated. With the mass production of 5nm starting in mid-2020, AMD could launch its Zen 4 processors in 2021.

The 5nm process is close to the limits of Moore's law. However, IBM claimed in 2017 that it was able to produce 5nm chips based on a gate-all-round field-effect transistor (GAAFET) configuration, as opposed to the more conventional FinFET (fin field-effect transistor) design.

TSMC's 5nm node is expected to increase the silicon density of future processors by as much as 80 per cent, and to boost the power efficiency of future devices.

TSMC had earlier stated that, compared to 7nm, its 5nm chips could increase operation speeds by 15 per cent, boost logic density by 1.8 times and cut power consumption by 30 per cent under the same logic density.

Industry experts believe that 5nm will be vital for future mobile devices, as 5G technology continues to grow in popularity. TSMC is expecting 5nm orders to increase next year as phone makers start selling more advanced chips with integrated 5G modems.

According to JK Wang, TSMC is also on track to start 3nm volume production in 2022.