TSMC will begin construction of N2 process production facilities in early 2022

TSMC’s N2 process-related supporting wafer fab construction project is in progress. The location of the first wafer fab is located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. The project will be carried out in four phases, in which it will take a year to build the fab plant, and it will take an extra year to install and debug the equipment. At present, some R&D facilities have been built.

According to the roadmap previously announced by TSMC, the N3 process will be put into production at the end of 2022, and improvements will be made between 2023 and 2024, while the N2 process may be put into production at the end of 2024 to sometime in 2025. TSMC generally builds so-called GigaFabs, which are factories with a monthly production capacity of more than 10 wafers. According to Nikkei Asia, the production facility of TSMC’s first N2 process wafer fab has been approved and construction will start in early 2022.

It is understood that TSMC may begin testing the production of the 2nm process in 2023, and it is expected that Gate-all-around FETs (GAAFET) and other new manufacturing processes will be introduced at this process node. It has long been reported that Apple and Intel are the first to obtain TSMC’s 3nm process capacity, and Apple and TSMC have also jointly promoted the development of the 2nm process. To meet the needs of the N2 process node, TSMC will plan to build a second fab that uses the N2 process.

There are rumors that TSMC has received an order for the N2 process, but no specific customer name is mentioned, but it is basically certain that Apple is one of them. Apple may use the 2nm process on the SoC of the iPhone 16 series. In addition, there will be self-developed chips using this process for iPad and Mac series products.