TAIWAN – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited has announced plans to build a 3nm chip plant in Tainan Science Park. The investment involved is approximately NT$500 billion.

The plant construction will start 2020 while mass production will begin two years later.

The company has initially considered the United States as a possible location of the plant but has chosen southern Taiwan after thorough evaluation. Competition is intensifying between TSMC and South Korea's Samsung Electronics in the pursuit of microfabrication.

TSMC won an exclusive order for A11 Bionic processors for U.S. Apple's iPhone 8 and iPhone X (ten). These processors are being manufactured using the 10nm FinFET process.

This is the most advanced mass-production technology. In 2018, the company plans to start 7nm mass-production. In 2019 TSMC eyes to start 7nm production using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, and at the same time, pilot production of 5nm chips.
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