During the supply chain management conference held earlier this month, TSMC CEO, Mark Liu, said that the company has started work on a 5nm manufacturing process and is currently considering which manufacturing technology is the best for it.



Earlier, TSMC only mentioned the 5nm manufacturing process as the long-term research option, estimating target schedule anywhere between 2014 and 2019. Currently, TSMC is working on the 5nm manufacturing process and considering which technology is best for it, either the new Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) or the e-beam technology which are a part of TSMC's "More than Moore" technology research.

According to a report from EETimes, a combination of the 193-immersion and EUV could be the best solution for the 5nm manufacturing process and while the 193-immersion approach might the most expensive one, EUV is still in its early stages and might not prove to be the best for 5nm manufacturing process.

Earlier, TSMC announced that it has produced first fully functional SRAM chips at 7nm and expects the volume production of 7nm to start in 2017. According to the same report, TSMC is expected to start technology qualification of 10nm manufacturing process during the Q4 2015 and have customer tapeouts early in 2016.



Source: Hexus.net.