Until now, TSMC company with a fair degree of certainty say about its ability to implement lithography with superhard ultraviolet (EUV) in the production of 5 nm or even 7-nm products, but recently in the voice of its representatives have begun to sound notes of doubt .
At yesterday's conference, the reporting of quarterly TSMC guide explained how elements of EUV-lithography will be used as part of a 7-nm technology. The latter, incidentally, will be certified by the end of the current quarter, and customers will be involved in the relevant work already in the second quarter. The development of 7-nm products are already 20 to 25 TSMC customers. After a couple of years, TSMC is going to go on a 5-nm process technology, which will bring already-massive use of EUV lithography.
If we go back to the earlier version of the 7-nm process technology, it will do without experiments of EUV-lithography. Only in the second year of 7-nm TSMC promises to start the life cycle of the application of superhard lithography with ultraviolet radiation. The end customers, such a transition will reduce production costs and increase the transistor density. Moreover, the phased introduction of EUV will enable less risk to introduce this technology in the framework of a 5-nm rules.