While next year’s iPhone 16 Pro models are expected to use a smaller version of TSMC’s 3nm process, Apple’s chipmaker is already planning production of its first 1nm chips …
TSMC’s ever-smaller chip processes
Apple used to split its A-series chip orders between Samsung and TSMC, but that changed as of the iPhone 6. At that point, TSMC received 100% of Apple orders, and that has remained the case to this day.
The reason? While Samsung’s chipmaking capabilities stalled, TSMC kept pushing forward with ever smaller processors – squeezing the gap between transistors to allow more and more of them on the same size chip.
The A17 Pro chip in the two iPhone 15 Pro models uses a 3nm process; next year’s iPhone 16 Pro is expected to use an even smaller version of this process known as N3E; with a 2nm process in 2025. A 2nm plant is currently under construction in Kaohsiung, in the south of the country.
TSMC looking ahead to 1nm chips
But the Taiwanese chipmaker has no thought of resting on its laurels, and is already making plans to fabricate 1nm chips – close to the likely physical limits of transistor gate sizes.
The company had initially settled on a location for its first 1nm chip plant, but that would have meant relocating some residents. They objected, and TSMC has now agreed to look elsewhere, reports Reuters.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker was intending to build a 1-nanometre chip factory in Longtan, according to a Central News Agency report in December [but TSMC] said it would not build a advanced chip factory in a rural part of northern Taiwan after local residents protested that they did not want to move to accommodate an expansion of an industrial park.
The company said it would work with the government-run Science Park Administration “to evaluate land in Taiwan suitable for building semiconductor fabs”. It did not mention potential alternative sites.
Chipmaking requires significant power and water supplies, meaning that setting up a new plant requires considerable investment in infrastructure, but the country’s economy minister says that the government will assist, given the importance of the industry.
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