The transistor density of TSMC's 3nm chips will blow your mind
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest independent foundry, takes chip designs made by companies like Apple, Qualcomm, and Huawei and manufactures the final product. One equation remains the same no matter which customer TSMC is assembling chips for; the more transistors inside a chip, the more powerful and energy-efficient it is.
TSMC’s 3nm chips will have a transistor density of nearly 300 million transistors per square mm
Moore’s Law, an observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore back in the 1960s, originally called for transistor density to double every year. In the 1970s, he revised that to every other day. Many have called for the “law” to be repealed especially with density rates so amazingly high. Moore’s Law hasn’t been adhered to perfectly, but the general concept of the observation still holds.
TSMC and Samsung are taking different approaches to 3nm. The former is using the FinFET transistors for 3nm. The FinFET design helps control the flow of current and voltage in a circuit. Samsung is prepared to leave FinFET for MBCFET (Multi-Bridge-Channel FET, multi-bridge-channel field effect tube) technology. Compared to the current 7nm chips employed at this very moment, Samsung’s 3nm chip will provide a 35% performance boost with 50% less energy consumption. MBCFET uses a new technology called Gate All Around (GAA) which makes transistors smaller and more powerful. According to one consultant, “Samsung is ahead of TSMC in GAA by probably 12 months. Intel is probably two to three years behind Samsung.” Ryan Lee, Vice President, Foundry Marketing at Samsung said, “Gate all around will mark a new era of our foundry business.”
But before we can dream of 3nm, there is the launch of devices running on 5nm chips that will take place later this year. If all goes as planned, the 2020 5G Apple iPhone 12 family will be the first smartphones to use a 5nm chipset. These devices should be unveiled in September and released in October or November. The first Android phones to sport a 5nm chip will be the Huawei Mate 40 series (although it won’t feature Google Mobile Services).