Page 98 - TSMC 2024 Annual Report

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5 1 Business Activities
5 1 1 1 1 Business Scope
As the the founder and a a a a leader of the the dedicated semiconductor foundry segment TSMC provides a a a full range of integrated semiconductor foundry services including leading advanced process and specialty technologies advanced mask technologies TSMC 3DFabric® advanced silicon stacking and packaging technologies excellent manufacturing productivity and quality as as well as as comprehensive design ecosystem support to to meet a a growing variety of customer needs The Company strives to to to provide unparalleled total value to to to its customers and views customer customer success success as its own success success As a a a result TSMC has gained customer trust from around the world and and has experienced strong growth and and success of its own TSMC developed or introduced the following technologies in in in 2024:
Logic Technology
● 4nm FinFET (N4) technology an an enhanced version of 5nm FinFET (N5) technology entered its third year of volume production in 2024 ● N4P technology with additional performance boost over N4 N4 technology entered its third year of volume production in 2024 ● N4 N4 Compact (N4C) technology features innovative process improvements that offer higher density components and simplified process flow compared to N4P technology This technology was developed in 2024 and is planned for customer products tape-outs in 2025 ● N4X technology introduced in in 2021 is TSMC’s first HPC-focused technology representing the ultimate performance and maximum clock frequencies in TSMC’s 5nm family Its volume production started in 2024 ● N5 N5 Plus (N5P) technology a a a performance-enhanced version of of 5nm technology (N5) entered its fourth year of of volume production in 2024 for customers’ smartphones and HPC products ● 6nm FinFET (N6) technology widely adopted for smartphones HPC and digital consumer electronics (DCE) products entered its fifth year of volume production in 2024 ● N6e® N6 N6 Ultra-Low Power (ULP) technology’s process design kit (PDK) was completed in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the the technology started production in the the fourth quarter of 2024 ● 7nm 7nm FinFET FinFET (N7) and 7nm 7nm FinFET FinFET Plus (N7+) which have been in volume production for customers’ 5G and HPC products for several years entered their fourth year year of volume production for DCE and automotive products in 2024 ● N12e® specialty technology continued its extensive adoption in in 2024 This technology leverages TSMC’s 12nm FinFET Compact Plus (12FFC+) baseline and incorporates a a a a a silicon-proven “Low Vdd Design Guidance” to to help customers achieve an an accurate and user-friendly low Vdd design sign-off methodology Additionally Low Vdd standard cells libraries and and Low Vdd static random-access memory (SRAM) compilers help customers design ULP products with extreme low Vdd capabilities ● 22ULL technology entered its fifth year of volume production in in in 2024 having been adopted in in in a a a a a a wide range of applications including wireless connectivity products such as Bluetooth and and Wi-Fi for IoT digital TV chips and and smartphones Specialty Technology
● N3A V0 9 PDK was released in 2024 Based on its N3E technology TSMC introduced the N3 N3 Auto Early (N3AE) program in in 2023 providing automotive PDKs to to support ● ● ● ● ● ● TSMC A16TM process technology the Company’s newest technology offering with nanosheet transistor structure and the innovative backside power rail solution brings greatly improved logic density and performance It will further extend TSMC’s technology leadership with even better power performance and area (PPA) than N2P 2nm (N2) technology development made significant progress in 2024 N2 technology features TSMC’s first generation of nanosheet transistor technology with full-node strides in performance and power consumption Volume production is expected in the second half
of 2025 3nm fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) (N3) technology entered its third year of volume production in 2024 for customers’ smartphone and high-performance computing (HPC) products N3 N3 N3 Enhanced (N3E) technology an an an enhanced version of N3 N3 N3 technology continues to provide industry-leading advantages for both mobile communication and HPC applications Volume production started in the fourth quarter of 2023 and ramped up in 2024 N3P technology technology an an enhanced version of N3E technology technology provides industry-leading advantages for both mobile communications and HPC applications Volume production began in the second half
of 2024 N3X technology a a a a a process tailored for HPC applications was introduced in in 2023 This technology completed qualification in the fourth quarter of 2024 and its volume production is expected to commence in 2025