TSMC's EUV Process Technology Accelerates AI and 5G
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the main foundry partner of chipmakers that develop the new-generation chip solutions for AI and 5G applications.
The world's largest foundry is enjoying the trust of many of the high-end chips that will appear at this year's MWC in Barcelona, as a result of the competitiveness of its EUV-based process technology.
Huawei's HiSilicon, Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek and Broadcom are all set to announce new products for handsets and mobile base stations, and other applications built on AI and 5G technologies.
Qualcomm will have on display its flagship Snapdragon 855 series mobile SoC that will power a number of new 5G smartphones slated for launch this year. Qualcomm will also showcase the recently announced Snapdragon X55 5G modem. Both chip solutions are manufactured using TSMC's 7nm FinFET process technology.
Huawei is expected to introduce its new Balong 5000 series smartphone equipped with 5G baseband developed by HiSilicon during the trade show next week, while MediaTek's lineup will include its Helio M70 and other 5G chip solutions. Both HiSilicon and MediaTek partner with TSMC to manufacture their 7nm products.
5G models presented by major smartphone vendors at the event will also highlight the currently available 7nm SoCs powering the devices, with TSMC being the major fabricator for those chip developers.
In addition, TSMC has reportedly obtained 7nm chip orders for 5G related applications including HPC and IoT from AMD, Nvidia, Xilinx, NXP, OmniVision and TI. TSMC is also expected to secure the first 5nm chip orders from Apple for the 2020 iPhones.
TSMC expressed previously optimism about its performance in 2020 and 2021. The company says it is making progress in the development of sub-7nm process technologies and plans to move the newer 5nm EUV process to volume production by 2020.