TSMC Mulls New finFET Process Production Date
By Mark LaPedus, SemiMD senior editor
At a technology event, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) disclosed that its finFET process roadmap is not set in stone, saying it is mulling plans to re-adjust the target date for the technology.
Previously, TSMC has stated that it will move into finFET production at the 14nm node. At that node, the silicon foundry giant plans to bring out its finFET process by the end of 2014, with “risk production” due out in 2015, according to its roadmap.
S.Y. Chiang
Shang-Yi Chiang, senior vice president of R&D at TSMC, said the foundry giant is mulling its plans to re-adjust its finFET schedule. “We may pull it in or push it out, depending on our customers,” Chiang said during a keynote at the ARM Techcon conference in Santa Clara, Calif.
After the keynote, Chiang told SemiMD that TSMC will stick with the original finFET roadmap – for now. The company is currently deciding on whether it will stick with the target date or re-adjust the roadmap. “We are still trying to finalize that,” he said.
Part of the decision revolves on cost and customer demand, he said. TSMC has no plans to offer a finFET process at 20nm.
There have been rumors that TMSC may accelerate its finFET production amid competitive pressures in the market, namely from Intel Corp. Intel has taken the lead in finFETs. Earlier this year, Intel rolled out its 22nm process, built around a tri-gate transistor or finFET. The process is said to boost the performance, but lower the power in devices.
Intel is not only targeting the finFET process for its microprocessors, but will also offer the technology for select foundry customers. Achronix Semiconductor, for example, will shortly ship its FPGAs built on the new, 22nm transistor architecture from Intel.
Other FPGA houses, Altera and Xilinx, are just ramping up their 28nm products. Both Altera and Xilinx are using TSMC for foundry services.
These events and others may cause TSMC to accelerate its finFET process. At present, TSMC is ramping up its 28nm process. Last week, the company announced that it taped out a 20nm processor core from ARM.
TSMC plans to ramp up its 20nm process at the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013, Chiang said. Then, TSMC has put its previously announced finFET process on its roadmap at 14nm.
Chiang believes that 20nm will be the last node for TSMC’s planar process. Beyond that, the planar process suffers from “difficulties from short channel effects,” he said. “After (20nm), planar transistors will run out of gas.”
He said finFETs are expected to scale to least the 7nm or 8nm node.
Other foundries are looking at finFETs. At a recent GlobalFoundries event, Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of technology and research and development for the foundry vendor, said GlobalFoundries has plans to adopt finFETs at the 14nm node. As part of the Fishkill Joint Development Alliance, the GlobalFoundries technology team has been developing finFETs for many years.
During another keynote at ARM Techcon, Chi-Ping Hsu, senior vice president of research and development at the Silicon Realization Group at Cadence Design Systems Inc., said finFETs provide 40 percent higher frequencies and 50 percent smaller die sizes.
That’s the good news. Now, for the bad news: There are a lot of “issues that need to be resolved” with finFETs, he added.
