TSMC's 2nm process is better than expected: power consumption drops by 30%, mass production in 2025

At the financial report meeting on October 13, TSMC not only announced its Q3 quarterly results, but also revealed the latest process progress. The demand for the 3nm process has exceeded expectations, and it will be fully loaded next year. Mass production, and the 2nm process is also progressing gratifyingly, 2025 Annual mass production. TSMC officially announced the 2nm process in June, and revealed some technical details. Compared with the 3nm process, under the same power consumption, the 2nm speed is 10~15% faster; under the same speed, the power consumption is reduced by 25~30%.

However, in terms of transistor density, the improvement of the 2nm process is not so satisfactory. Compared with 3nm, it has only increased by 10%, which is far lower than the previous increase in transistor density of at least 70%. This may be the first time that TSMC has abandoned FinFET on the 2nm process. Transistors, due to the use of GAA transistors, the first-generation process will be conservative.

According to Wei Zhejia, CEO of TSMC, the 2nm process is progressing smoothly, even exceeding expectations, but their current plan is still mass production in 2025, and they do not plan to advance it.

TSMC's 2nm process should still be launched by Apple. This year's A16 is 4nm, next year's A17 and the next year's A18 should be 3nm, and the A19 chip in 2025 will likely use the 2nm process.