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TSMC struggles to fabricate enough 3nm Apple Silicon chips
Wednesday, April 26, 2023 10:31 am

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is struggling to meet demand from top customer Apple for 3nm Apple Silicon chips.

Alan Patterson for EE Times:

The company’s tool and yield struggles have impeded the ramp to volume production with world-leading technology, according to analysts surveyed by EE Times.

“TSMC, in our view, remains the preferred foundry choice for leading-edge nodes as Samsung Foundry has yet to demonstrate a stable leading-edge process technology, all while IFS [Intel Foundry Services] is years away from offering a competitive solution,” Hosseini said in a report he provided to EE Times.

Apple will pay TSMC for known good die rather than standard wafer prices, at least for the first three to four quarters of the N3 ramp as yields climb to around 70%, Brett Simpson, senior analyst at Arete Research, said in a report provided to EE Times.

“We think TSMC will move to normal wafer-based pricing on N3 with Apple during the first half of 2024, at around $16-17K average selling prices,” Simpson said. “At present, we believe N3 yields at TSMC for A17 and M3 processors are at around 55% [a healthy level at this stage in N3 development], and TSMC looks on schedule to boost yields by around 5+ points each quarter.”

For the iPhone A17 chip, TSMC will do 82 mask layers with a die size likely in the 100-110 mm square range, the Arete report said. That means a yield of around 620 chips per wafer with a wafer cycle time of four months, the report added. M3 is likely to be around 135-150 mm square die size and around 450 chips per wafer, according to Arete.

In the second half of 2023, TSMC will ramp Apple’s A17 and M3 processors at the N3 node… according to Hosseini.

MacDailyNews Take: The early yield struggles are SOP. It’ll all work out fine. With the move to 3nm, expect even crazier performance and even longer battery life from future Apple Silicon!

https://macdailynews.com/2023/04/26/tsmc-struggles-to-fabricate-enough-3nm-apple-silicon-chips/