TSMC delays High‑NA adoption to 2029+
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. laid out a 2029 process roadmap on April 22 that keeps High-NA extreme ultraviolet tools out of production plans. - TSMC said A13 enters volume production in 2029, while N2U arrives in 2028 using existing lithography, design tuning, and transistor upgrades. - Intel is still positioning 14A around High-NA, splitting leading-edge strategies among foundries. (tsmc.com)
Chipmaking is the business of drawing ever-smaller patterns on silicon, and the newest drawing tool is High-NA extreme ultraviolet lithography. TSMC now says its roadmap through 2029 does not require that tool in production. (asml.com) (pr.tsmc.com) At its North America Technology Symposium on April 22, TSMC introduced A13 and said the node will enter volume production in 2029. The company described A13 as a direct shrink of A14 with a further 6% area reduction. (tsmc.com) TSMC also extended its 2-nanometer family with N2U, a 2028 process aimed at artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and mobile chips. Electronics Weekly reported N2U is designed to deliver 3% to 4% higher speed or 8% to 10% lower power than N2P, with 1.02x to 1.03x logic-density gain. (tsmc.com) (electronicsweekly.com) High-NA is ASML’s next-generation version of extreme ultraviolet lithography, using 0.55 numerical aperture optics instead of 0.33 in current EUV systems. ASML says that lets chipmakers print features 1.7 times smaller in a single exposure and reach transistor densities 2.9 times higher than NXE systems. (asml.com 1) (asml.com 2) TSMC’s decision means it plans to keep squeezing more out of today’s EUV tools with process tweaks, transistor changes, and more complex patterning steps instead of buying High-NA scanners for near-term production. TSMC’s symposium materials frame A13 as part of a steady annual client-node cadence built on existing platform evolution. (tsmc.com 1) (tsmc.com 2) Cost is part of the equation. CNBC reported in 2025 that ASML’s High-NA machines carry a price tag of more than $400 million each. (cnbc.com) Intel is taking the opposite path. Intel’s foundry roadmap still includes 14A and 14A-E, and Intel has continued to market 14A to customers while reporting that it hit key 14A milestones in the first quarter of 2026. (intel.com 1) (intel.com 2) That leaves the industry with two live bets. TSMC is stretching current EUV deeper into the decade, while Intel is still trying to turn High-NA into a manufacturing advantage at 14A. (tsmc.com) (intel.com)
