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The predictions by TSMC on innovating into the future

The predictions by TSMC on innovating into the future

Source:Pei-Yin Hsieh

With more than 45,000 industry visitors, this year’s SEMICON Taiwan posted the highest attendance in 27 years. Mark Liu, chairman of global industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), voiced optimism in his keynote speech, emphasizing that innovation is the soul of the company.

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The predictions by TSMC on innovating into the future

By Hannah Chang
web only

On September 14, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu delivered a keynote speech titled Innovating towards a world of shared optimism, in which he confidently pointed out that TSMC has achieved breakthroughs in the three areas: 3nm process technology, energy efficiency, and green manufacturing across the supply chain. The industry is looking toward “a bright new world,” he said.

"Semiconductor Innovation has always been the soul of TSMC," said Liu, adding that the future of semiconductors must be envisaged with new ideas in mind, so that advanced processes and higher energy efficiency can both be achieved.

Prediction No. 1: Semiconductor energy efficiency doubling every two years

Over the past 15 years, semiconductors have delivered vast performance benefits, especially by doubling energy efficiency every two years. This trend will continue in future, he said.

Terry Tsao, the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) and president of SEMI Taiwan, said this year’s SEMICON exhibition drew particular attention due to Taiwan’s geopolitical importance. With more than 2,450 booths and more than 700 exhibitors, the exhibition’s scale hit a 27-year record high.

SEMI CEO and President Ajit Manocha attended the exhibition via videoconference. Pointing to breakthrough applications and technologies such as quantum computing, the metaverse, 5G and 6G, Manocha voiced optimism that the semiconductor market could grow to more than US$1 trillion by 2030.

He predicted that global electronic manufacturing and design supply chains would continue to face various challenges in 2022. But he praised Taiwan as “undoubtedly the most reliable, most important supply chain partner” amid these challenges.

At TSMC’s 2022 Technology Symposium two weeks earlier, executives had already unveiled their technological roadmap and vision to suppliers. Therefore, the company chose to participate in the SEMI “sustainability” panel.

Noting that foundry technology has been advancing, Liu said that power efficiency has the highest priority. “IoT devices require low power consumption as a product-enabling factor. Energy efficiency has become the top requirement across various domains, such as smartphones, IoT, and high speed computing,” he said. Pointing out that TSMC has already started production using energy-efficient 3nm process technology, Liu said that “energy efficiency will continue to be driven by materials, device innovations, and system architecture,” so that energy efficiency will rise and more energy can be conserved.

 國際半導體展-台積電-劉德音-半導體(Source: Pei-Ying Hsieh)

Prediction No.2: Energy efficiency crucial to future semiconductoe processes

Each unit of products manufactured with 5nm technology, which is already used in volume production, requires just 7 percent of the energy consumed when using older, less advanced 28nm process technology. In other words, 5nm process production consumes 93 percent less energy than 28nm process manufacturing.

While the semiconductor industry stands accused of being a power-hungry monster, Liu cited this example to demonstrate that the industry can help solve global energy challenges.

In its 2021 Sustainability Report, TSMC advertises itself as the “First Semiconductor Company to adopt energy-efficient measures in advanced manufacturing equipment worldwide“. Given that the power consumption of the process manufacturing equipment accounts for over 50 percent of the company’s energy use, and the number of advanced manufacturing equipment increases every year, TSMC launched 365 action plans under the Energy Conservation Action Project for Next-generation Fab Tools in 2021. As many as 159 action plans have been verified and applied to 119 advanced manufacturing tool models for 5mn process manufacturing, and will be applied to 3nm process manufacturing in the future.

Moreover, the program introduced high-efficiency parts and energy-saving designs in 17 energy-intensive components and successfully saved 400 GWh of electricity in a year, according to the report.

Prediction No. 3: New materials, new architectures herald bright future for semiconductors

Liu pointed out that TSMC has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. “Technology can march on to the new roadmap of energy efficiency and computing. We can now achieve this together by charting multiple new paths — from new materials to architectures, and from transistor-level structures to system-level innovations,” Liu told the audience. 

At the symposium, TSMC had already announced that its 2nm process technology, slated to go into volume production in three years, will employ two major new technologies, so-called nanosheet transistors and backend-of-line power delivery, for better performance and lower energy consumption.

“We now have endless opportunities to unleash new innovations,” noted Liu, reiterating his conviction that semiconductors are headed toward a bright, new world.

台積電-魏哲家-半導體-台積技術論壇(Source: Ming-Tang Huang)


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Traslated by Susanne Ganz
Edited by TC Lin
Uploaded by Ian Huang

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