Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
TSMC's tech advance builds pressure on Samsung
This photo taken on Mar. 25 shows two water trucks passing a TSMC factory in Taichung, central Taiwan. AFP-Yonhap
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
TSMC appears to be a step ahead of Samsung Electronics in the chip race, as the foundry business frontrunner claims to have succeeded in mass producing semiconductors using ultra-thin 1-nanometer processing technology.
The Taiwan-based company recently announced in the science journal, “Nature,” that it had succeeded in developing the technology to mass produce 1-nanometer chips. The feat was achieved through joint research with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and National Taiwan University (NTU).
Researchers succeeded in replacing silicon, an essential material for manufacturing semiconductors, with bismuth, a semimetal, to significantly reduce resistance and increase electrical current capacity. Energy efficiency would thus increase to the highest possible level for the chips.
According to the U.K.-based tech website, Hexus, TSMC and the two universities worked together for over 18 months on the project. MIT made the key discoveries, while TSMC's expertise allowed it to be optimized and NTU used its helium-ion beam lithography to narrow the dimension to 1 nanometer.
Earlier this month, IBM said it succeeded in developing the world's first 2-nanometer chip technology. TSMC's success in making a significant breakthrough in the 1-nanometer chip race apparently leaves its rival Samsung in a precarious state.
In the chip-making business, how small a company can make a chip of utmost importance, since smaller chips have better power efficiency and help manufacturers to produce more chips on a single wafer. Currently, TSMC and Samsung are the only two companies that are capable of producing below 7-nanometer chips.
Samsung, which said earlier that it hopes to become the leader in the contract-based foundry business by 2030, had a market share of 17 percent, while TSMC held the largest share of 54 percent in 2020, according to market tracker TrendForce.
Currently, the two companies are competing in the production of 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer chips and both are set to begin mass-producing 3-nanometer chips within 2022.
All eyes are on which company will start mass-producing 3-nanometer chips first. Compared to 5-nanometer chips, industry analysts said 3-nanometer chips can reduce chip sizes and power consumption by 35 percent and 50 percent, respectively, as well as boost performance by 30 percent.
The two rivals are investing billions of dollars to improve their production capacities for smaller chips. TSMC is expanding its 5-nanometer chip production line in Arizona by investing $12 billion and also unveiled a plan to add five more lines to manufacture 3-nanometer chips. Samsung is set to apply a 5-nanometer semiconductor processing technology at its forthcoming new lines to be installed at its plant in Austin, Texas.