TSMC delays High‑NA EUV
- TSMC will hold off on deploying ASML's High‑NA EUV machines and continue improving lower‑NA processes instead. - The company plans to rely on its A13 and N2U nodes and delay High‑NA adoption until at least 2029. - Investors reacted positively to the cost‑conscious strategy, lifting TSMC shares about 5% after the announcement (businesswire.com)
TSMC said this week it can keep shrinking chips through 2029 without putting ASML’s newest High‑NA lithography machines into mass production. (tsmc.com) (bloomberg.com) At TSMC’s North America Technology Symposium in Santa Clara on April 22, the company introduced its A13 process for 2029 production and its N2U process for 2028 production. A13 is a shrink of A14, while N2U extends TSMC’s 2-nanometer family with speed gains of 3% to 4% or power cuts of 8% to 10% versus N2P. (tsmc.com) High‑NA, short for high numerical aperture, is the next generation of extreme ultraviolet chip-printing gear. ASML says its EXE:5000 system uses 0.55 NA optics and 8-nanometer resolution to print features 1.7 times smaller than its older NXE machines. (asml.com) TSMC’s message was that it still sees room to improve chips with the older 0.33‑NA EUV tools already running in its factories. Deputy co-chief operating officer Kevin Zhang said the company can “harvest the benefit from current EUV” through 2029. (electronicsweekly.com) The cost gap is central to that decision. Bloomberg reported that High‑NA tools sell for more than €350 million, or about $410 million, apiece, making them far more expensive than the previous EUV generation. (bloomberg.com) (finance.yahoo.com) TSMC paired that equipment call with a roadmap built around packaging, the step that bundles multiple chips and memory stacks into one module. The company said a 14-reticle CoWoS package able to combine about 10 large compute dies and 20 high-bandwidth memory stacks is planned for production in 2028. (electronicsweekly.com) Investors treated the plan as a sign that TSMC can keep advancing without immediately taking on the biggest new tool bill. U.S.-listed TSMC shares closed at $387.44 on April 22, up 5.26% for the day, according to Stock Analysis data. (stockanalysis.com) The decision also lands awkwardly for ASML, because TSMC is one of the few customers big enough to buy these machines at scale. Bloomberg reported that TSMC is ASML’s largest customer, and ASML has been counting on High‑NA adoption as chipmakers move deeper into the 2-nanometer era. (bloomberg.com) (asml.com) For now, TSMC is betting that better designs, better yields, and bigger packages will carry its leading-edge roadmap to 2029. The company’s April 22 presentation turned what looked like a tool race into a cost-and-timing calculation. (tsmc.com) (bloomberg.com)
