TSMC to start production of 7nm chips with euv machines in March

TSMC plans to start volume production of its CLN7FF+ node in March. This is the second generation of production for 7nm chips, with the Taiwanese manufacturer using ASML’s euv machines.

Taiwanese tech industry sources tell DigiTimes that volume production of the upgraded 7nm node, which the company calls CLN7FF+, will begin at the end of March. This is significant scale production for customers, often coinciding or superseded by mass production. It is the first chip generation for which TSMC will use euv machines. According to DigiTimes, TSMC will purchase eighteen of the thirty EUV machines supplied by ASML this year.

TSMC already makes chips on a 7nm production process, for AMD and Apple, among others, but for now it only uses its machines for immersion lithography. The limits of this technique have come into view and chip manufacturers have to deploy several expensive patterning steps for the latest generation of chips, in which the critical layers of wafers are exposed multiple times. With the switch to euv, you can do that in a single exposure. TSMC will initially use euv lithography to structure some critical layers of the chips.

With the next node, for 5nm chips, the company will use euv for more layers. Risk production for 5nm should start in the second quarter. Volume production will follow in the first half of 2020. TSMC’s competitor Samsung already started using euv for its 7nm process last October.