At a conference on Thursday, a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co-executive stated that the world's largest chipmaker will get the next iteration of ASML's most advanced lithography tool in 2024.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, is the world's biggest dedicated chip foundry, with a market share of more than 50% in 2019. TSMC was founded in 1987 as a joint venture between Philips, the Taiwanese government, and private investors.
It went public as an ADR in the United States in 1997. Even in the highly competitive foundry business, TSMC's scale and high-quality technology enable the company to generate solid operating margins.
Furthermore, TSMC has benefited from the shift to a fabless business model. The foundry market leader has a prestigious customer base that includes Apple and Nvidia, and it seeks to apply cutting-edge methods to its semiconductor designs.
Intel will compete with TSMC for customers as it enters the business of manufacturing chips designed by other companies. As a result, the industry is keeping a close eye on which company has a competitive advantage in the next generation of chip technology.
Kevin Zhang, TSMC's senior vice president of business development, later clarified that the new high-NA EUV tool would not be ready for production by 2024, but would instead be used for research with partners.
"In the future, TSMC will bring in high-NA EUV scanners in 2024 to develop the associated infrastructure and patterning solution required for customers to fuel innovation," according to YJ Mii, senior vice president of research and development, at TSMC's Silicon Valley technology symposium.
Mii did not specify when the device, which is the second generation of extreme ultraviolet lithography tools required to create smaller and faster chips, would be mass-produced. Intel Corp, TSMC's rival, has stated that it will use the machines in production by 2025 and that it will be the first to receive the machine.
EUV technology has become so critical to staying ahead of the competition. High-NA EUV is the next major innovation in the technology that will propel chip technology to the forefront.
On Thursday, TSMC also provided more information about its 2-nanometer chip technology, which it claims is on track for volume production in 2025. TSMC stated that it has spent 15 years developing "nanosheet" transistor technology to improve speed and power efficiency, which it will use for the first time in its 2-nanometer chips.
