TSMC has named its nanoprocess generation technology as the N series, and in response to entering the Emmy process era in the future, the technology has been renamed as the A series. A16 (1.6nm) is TSMC's first Emmy process node revealed. The industry believes that in the future, TSMC's Taiwan, China factories and American wafer factories will successively introduce the Amy process, which will help TSMC to deal with geopolitical issues, take more orders from customers around the world, and continue to boost its performance.
Kevin Zhang, TSMC's senior vice president and deputy co chief operating officer, revealed that TSMC's most advanced A16 process is scheduled to be mass produced in the second half of 2026, and will be put into production in Taiwan, China, China first. Zhang Xiaoqiang emphasized that TSMC will work together with its customers to help them achieve success through a wafer foundry model.
Zhang Xiaoqiang said that TSMC is expanding its global manufacturing footprint, and the progress is very smooth and fast. Among them, the first factory in Arizona, USA, produces 4nm and will start mass production in 2025. The second factory will be expanded and a third factory will be planned for the future. TSMC will continue to push its leading and advanced technology to North America, where TSMC's largest customer base is located, including from 4nm to 3nm, and even the A16 (1.6nm) process below 2nm in the future.
While TSMC continues to expand its technology and production capacity in North America, Zhang Xiaoqiang stated that TSMC is also expanding its professional manufacturing technology services in Japan and Europe. The Kumamoto wafer fab in Japan is progressing smoothly and is expected to start mass production in the second half of this year. It will also introduce the most advanced embedded technology for automotive microcontrollers (MCUs) to the European market.
In terms of advanced packaging, TSMC is evaluating multiple options and is currently working closely with partners to increase manufacturing capacity in the United States, and may even expand to other markets in the future.
In response to the issue of "Moore's Law is dead", Zhang Xiaoqiang stated that he does not care about the survival of Moore's Law. With breakthroughs in industrial innovation, he will change the narrow definition of Moore's Law in the past.
When asked about TSMC's success in incremental process node improvements, Zhang Xiaoqiang clarified that our progress is far from insignificant. TSMC emphasizes that the transition from 5nm to 3nm level process nodes in the foundry has resulted in PPA improvements exceeding 30% for each generation. TSMC continues to make small but sustained enhancements between major nodes to enable customers to benefit from each new generation of technology.
