Engraving 2 NM: Mediatek and TSMC revolutionize the chip of tomorrow (and your smartphone!)

2023 was the year of 3 Nm, 2026 will be that of 2 NM: at the Computex lounge in Taiwan, the CEO of the Taiwanese group Mediatek announced that its group would begin the production at risk of chips engraved in the Node TSMC N2. A manufacturing process commonly called 2 nanometers 2nm, even if this appellation is abusive – no element is really as small.

While Mediatek never ceases to grow – partnerships with NVIDIA, raising high -end SOC for smartphone, development of chromebook and PC fleas, etc. – The world number 1 of mobile SOCs (in volume) intends to pass the second and become one of the first actors in the world to offer flea engraved as finely.

Mediatek and TSMC hand in hand

Mediatek can count on the support of his compatriot TSMC, the biggest and more advanced of the producers of flea in the world. Which enjoys a quasi-monopoly on the production of latest generation fleas.

A TSMC that has started taking control of its Node N2 since April. It is in his Fab 20 in Baoshan, in the county of Hsinchu, in the north of the island, that TSMC will begin production at risk. A production all the same controlled since TSMC already claims a yield of 60% (without specifying the size of the final fleas).

A high performance which is explained both by mastering TSMC, but also by a technological choice.

TSMC n2 less advanced than Intel 18A?

In what one could call the engraving in 2 nm, TSMC introduces as its competitors a new structure of transistors called Gate All Around. Appointed Nanosheet by TSMC, Gaafet by Samsung and Ribbonfet by Intel, this structure is the first change in spatial conformation of transistors since the introduction of the current Finfet standard by Intel in 2011.

TSMC has remained more careful, however, that Intel, which takes advantage of its 18A node to introduce, at the same time, a new flea supply structure called rear power (backside Power Delivery).

It must be said that with the delay taken by Intel in the race to reduce circuits, the American is launched in a race against the clock to make up for behind. The question is therefore to know which of the two nodes will not only be the most effective, but also the most profitable. The key to a world of semiconductors where investments in factories become colossal: the future Fab 22 of TSMC located in Kaohsiung (Taiwan) will cost a total of $ 45 billion.

An importance for actors such as AMD, Qualcomm, Nvidia and Apple, who must not only deal with the yields of foundry actors, but also with the regulations and other customs rights of the current American administration.

For TSMC, however, the question arises a little less: the group has always called on its compatriot TSMC. Who would practice, according to several concordant rumors, preferential prices for Mediatek. Question of national solidarity!

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