Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), as the world’s largest foundry, has been advancing the research and development of new processes step by step. According to DigiTimes reports, news from the semiconductor industry chain pointed out that TSMC is expected to start using the N4 process in the third quarter. N4 belongs to the N5 series, which also includes N5, N5P, and N5HPC. Although both rely on deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography and extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), and the two have many common points, there are still differences, and they are designed for different applications.
N5P is a performance-enhanced version of N5. The frequency will be increased by 5%, and the power consumption will be reduced by 10% under the same number of transistors. The process can be seamlessly migrated from N5. If chip designers need to provide chip performance or reduce power consumption, just transfer the IP. I believe that the current N5P process is already available.
Compared with the N5 process, the N4 process can provide more PPA (power, performance, area) advantages, but maintain the same design rules, design infrastructure, SPICE simulation program, and IP. As the N4 process further expands the use of EUV lithography tools and equipment, it also reduces the number of masks, process steps, risks, and costs. Based on the N5 process, N4 can reduce the chip area by 6%, and further improve the performance and power consumption advantages through BEOL. Although N4 is not a revolutionary manufacturing process, for existing TSMC customers, it will be used in mainstream products in the next few years.
As N4 enters the risky production stage in the third quarter of 2021, mass production is expected to be carried out in late 2021 or early 2022. The production of the N4 process does not mean the end of the N5 process improvement. For high-frequency and high-performance applications,
TSMC will provide the N5HPC process in the second quarter of 2022. Compared with N5, N5HPC can increase the frequency by 7% while maintaining design compatibility, which is very useful for general-purpose processors that require high frequencies.
