TSMC Ready For The Angstrom-14 Era, Initiates Development On Cutting-Edge 1.4nm Process

TSMC has announced that the firm has finally entered the "Angstrom 14 Era" as they initiate development on their cutting-edge A14 process.

TSMC released its Annual Report 2023 a few months ago, but apparently, the documentation contained crucial information that was missed. Before we dive into that, let's talk a bit about TSMC's A14, or what is labeled as a tech revolution by many analysts out there.

Right now, we are on the timeline for TSMC's 3nm processes to start to see widespread adoption. Hence, the 1.4 nm still has a lot way before it debuts into the markets and will likely come after 2nm and 1.8nm nodes, which means that you can expect it to drop at least within the next five years or maybe more.

11/20 “TSMC expects end demand for…products such as smartphones and PCs to gradually recover with mild growth spurred in part by the pent-up demand after consecutive declines in the past two years. In addition, the acceleration of AI related adoptions will also fuel demand for…

— Dan Nystedt (@dnystedt) April 24, 2024

Moving on to the more interesting tidbits, prominent analyst Dan Nystedt has managed to dig into TSMC's documents, extracting information about the firm's 1.4nm process, as disclosed to investors in their annual report. TSMC says that their 1.4nm node is targeted towards high-end SoCs and HPC applications, likely indicating that their primary focus is indeed getting distributed from traditional mobile and computing markets to the AI segment as well. TSMC says that they will likely explore the next-generation EUV scanners for the A14 process, which means that it is still in the R&D stages.

Moreover, the Taiwan giant says that they have moved to "exploratory studies" for nodes beyond 14A, which is mere speculation for now. Still, they are likely talking about 1nm and ahead if process shrinking becomes the way to move forward after a decade or so. TSMC expects to significantly bump up its R&D expenditures in the coming years after already witnessing an 11.7% YoY increase in the R&D budget, and the firm says that this is solely due to "a higher level of research activities for 14-angstrom, 2-nanometer, and 3-nanometer process technologies".

Well, that was it for the firm's Angstrom-14 (1.4nm). The company is expected to disclose more details about it at the TSMC 2024 Technology Symposium, which will start today and continue until Friday, June 28, 2024. TSMC anticipates moving rapidly in the future, predicting a high single-digit CAGR in the next five years. The primary catalyst is the AI hype, followed by huge demand from the markets.

TSMC expects end demand for…products such as smartphones and PCs to gradually recover with mild growth spurred in part by the pent-up demand after consecutive declines in the past two years. In addition, the acceleration of AI related adoptions will also fuel demand for semiconductors.

- TSMC via Dan Nystedt

On details for the firm's packaging efforts, TSMC says that their CoWoS-S and CoWoS-L are ready for mass production, expected to be combined with the upcoming HBM3E memory type to be utilized in next-gen AI accelerators. Moreover, process upgrades are also practical and will likely target HBM4 in the future, but details on it haven't been disclosed yet.

Seeing development on TSMC's 1.4nm process is astonishing since it shows that the industry isn't slacking behind in any way, and we are all set to witness a technological marvel to drop into the markets, but it's still far away. However, with the annual report published by the Taiwan giant, it seems like they are all set for the future, likely to hold the reigns of the semiconductor markets. TSMC will be competing with Intel in the race to the Angstorm era of semiconductors with the blue team already announcing several nodes in its stacks up to the 14A which we have talked about over here.

News Source: TSMC