TSMC will reportedly begin the trial production of 2nm chips next week, which will be first adopted by Apple for the iPhone 17 series and other Apple devices. Notably, the trial production is beginning significantly earlier.
Previously the trial production was expected to begin in Q4 (in October or later). This is interpreted as an attempt to speed up production in order to secure a stable yield before mass production. For those unfamiliar, the trial production is where the company tests out the planned production line processes to be used, ahead of mass production.
TSMC first demonstrated its 2nm fabrication process back in December last year.
Trial production will be carried out at TSMC’s Baoshan plant in northern Taiwan. The equipment necessary for the 2nm production has already been brought into and installed at the Baoshan plant since the second quarter.
The iPhone 15 Pro models equip the A17 Pro chipset, which is fabricated using TSMC’s 3nm process. This process allows more transistors to be packed into a smaller space, thereby improving performance and efficiency as compared to the predecessor. Apple’s M4 chip recently debuted with the new iPad Pro, which uses an enhanced 3nm fabrication process.
Getting a good enough yield rate (the percentage of chips that pass quality-control checks) is generally one of the biggest challenges for new process notes. Back in April last year, the 3nm chips from TSMC had a yield rate of around 50%.
Apple was previously believed to reserve the entire production capacity of TSMC’s 3nm chips for the A17 Pro and M3 chip. It could repeat with TSMC for the 2nm production capacity as well. A report from May last year says that the company was working on reserving all the production capacity of 2nm chips as well.
TSMC is expected to apply gate all around (GAA) technology starting with the 2㎚ processes, which will improve performance and power efficiency. TSMC also plans to introduce back-side power supply (BSPR) technology with the 2nm chips.
(Source)
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