Ahead of Samsung! A major breakthrough in 3nm process! TSMC put into production in August, Q1 advanced process revenue accounted for 50%
At 2 p.m. on April 14, TSMC’s 2022 first quarter legal meeting was officially held. Benefiting from the price increase of chips, coupled with the continuous volume of advanced processes such as 7nm and 5nm, TSMC’s revenue and growth performance in the first quarter of 2022 amazed the market. TSMC’s revenue in the first quarter of 2022 reached $17.57 billion, an increase of 36% from the same period last year and an increase of 11.6% from the fourth quarter of 2021. The gross profit margin in the first quarter was 55.6%, and the net profit after tax increased by 45.1% year-on-year, reaching TWD 202.73 billion. Both revenue and gross profit margin exceeded the financial target at the beginning of the year.
The picture comes from TSMC PPT
From the analysis of chip process revenue, TSMC pointed out that in the first quarter, the 7nm process shipment revenue accounted for 30%, and the 5nm process shipment revenue accounted for 20%, that is, the advanced process revenue accounted for 50%. 28nm and 16nm process revenue accounted for 11% and 14% respectively.
The picture comes from TSMC PPT
From the perspective of business platforms, TSMC’s smartphone revenue in the first quarter accounted for 40%, HPC (high-efficiency computing) reached 41%, IoT 8%, automotive electronics accounted for 5%, and consumer electronics accounted for 3%. It is worth noting that the automotive electronics and HPC revenue growth is strong, with a quarterly increase of 26%.
The picture comes from TSMC PPT
Regarding the performance outlook for the second quarter of 2022, TSMC Chief Financial Officer Huang Renzhao said that Q2 revenue will fall between US$17.6 billion and US$18.2 billion, an increase of 3.2% to 6.7% compared with the first quarter of 2022.
TSMC 3nm VS Samsung 3nm, who will win?
TSMC and Samsung are the only two foundries currently planning to produce chips using the 3nm process node. TSMC plans to continue to use its FinFET transistors for 3nm, while Samsung plans to use its GAA (Gate-all-around) architecture for 3nm. According to overseas media reports, Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley said that TSMC is advancing its production plan for its enhanced 3nm process node (N3e) by a quarter.
According to the Morgan Stanley report, the logic density of TSMC’s N3e process node has been reduced by about 8% compared to the original N3, and the number of EUV layers has been reduced by four. EUV machines use a beam of ultraviolet light to help create circuit patterns on wafers. Bringing the production of N3e mode forward by a quarter has no impact on the production of the original N3 3nm chips. TSMC is still on track to start production of N3 chips in the third quarter of this year and deliver them to customers in the first quarter of 2023.
Recently, Taiwan’s “United Daily News” recently reported that TSMC’s 3nm process has recently made a major breakthrough, and will be put into mass production simultaneously in the eighth phase of the R&D Center of Hsinchu Factory 12 and the P5 Factory of Nanke Factory 18 in August this year. It is the Fin Field Effect Transistor (FinFET) architecture against Samsung’s gate-all-around (GAA) process. Now the N3B version will be mass-produced in August, and an enhanced version of the N3E process will be mass-produced in 2023.
It is reported that the N3E process will use fewer EUV lithography layers, reducing from 25 layers to 21 layers. It is less difficult to put into production, the yield can be higher, and the cost will naturally be reduced, but the transistor density will be about 8% lower than the N3 version. , which is still 60% higher than N5.
In the advanced process competition, TSMC’s biggest competitor is South Korea’s Samsung Electronics. Samsung’s 3nm process development process is not as good as expected. Industry insiders have said that it has few customers and incomplete IP is the main obstacle. After Samsung Electronics’ 4nm process technology was mass-produced, Samsung Electronics The fab’s 4nm node has a chip yield of only 35%, while TSMC’s 4nm node has a 70% yield. Disappointing yield numbers have led to a turnaround from Qualcomm, which has handed over next-generation chips directly to TSMC.
TSMC’s 3nm process will be mass-produced in August, and it is estimated that Apple’s new A16 chip will not be able to use this latest process in the third quarter. TSMC’s 3nm will accelerate its volume next year, and the industry believes that there are mainly 8 customers. The first echelon is mainly to deal with Apple and Intel. In addition to Apple’s new mobile phone processors, it also includes applications such as tablets and laptops; the second echelon customers are AMD and MediaTek, and the third echelon is NVIDIA and Qualcomm.
Despite the recent decline in the consumer electronics boom index, Haitong International Securities pointed out that TSMC’s market position cannot be shaken, especially in advanced processes, 7nm, 5nm and 3nm. In the future, TSMC will be relatively slightly affected by the industry downturn. In the first quarter, TSMC’s advanced process revenue accounted for 50%, and investment bank Morgan Stanley also optimistic about TSMC’s progress on 3nm, predicting that its share in the advanced process market will further increase.