Rapidus plans to trial produce 2nm chips in 2025
Samsung announced its future technology roadmap last year. Mass production of the 2nm process will begin in 2025, and the more advanced 1.4nm process is expected to be mass-produced in 2027. At the same time, it will also accelerate the development of 2.5D/3D heterogeneous integrated packaging technology, and it is expected to provide a 3D packaging solution called X-Cube in 2024. TSMC aims to mass produce its N2 process in 2025 and use Gate-all-around FETs (GAAFET) transistors at the 2nm process node.
TSMC and Samsung account for most of the foundry business in the world, however, as Intel began to implement the IDM 2.0 strategy in 2021, launched the Intel Foundry Service (IFS) and updated the technology roadmap in order to mass-produce the Intel 18A process in 2025, the battle for advanced technology has changed from two-way competition to three-way competition. According to Business Korea, Atsuyoshi Koike, president of Japanese semiconductor company Rapidus, said in an interview that the company plans to trial produce 2nm chips in 2025, so that mass production can begin in the second half of the 2020s.
Rapidus is a joint venture established in 2022 by eight Japanese companies including Sony, Toyota, NTT, Mitsubishi, NEC, Kioxia, and Softbank, aiming to realize the design and manufacture of localized advanced semiconductor processes. With the statement made by the president of Rapidus, it seems that there is another contestant in the 2nm process, and it is going to compete in four directions.
Rapidus proposed a detailed roadmap, in which 2 trillion yen is required to obtain 2nm process technology, and another 3 trillion yen is required to establish a large-scale production line. Rapidus has signed a technology licensing agreement with IBM by the end of 2022, and the latter has trial-produced 2nm chips as early as 2021.
In addition, the Japanese government plans to invest 5 trillion yen in the semiconductor field within ten years, while providing subsidies of 70 billion yen.
