Tsmc will start production of the 5nm in the second half of 2019

While Intel's 10nm issues continue, TSMC has continued to move towards smaller nodes, confirming its plans to start 'risk production' of the 5nm node in the second half of 2019.

TSMC will start risk production of the new node at 5nm next year

Additionally, TSMC expects its new 7nm node to represent 20% of its total revenue over the next year, showing the huge demand for a leading-edge process node, with TSMC leading the way in manufacturing 7nm nodes, then that GlobalFoundries stopped producing them.

TSMC is planning to develop a 7nm FinFET 'Plus' node, which adopts EUV technology for multiple layers in the manufacturing process, while 5nm FinFET further uses the technology for more critical layers, reducing the need for multiple patterns. EUV technology would come some time after 7nm mass production begins.

They estimate an area reduction of 45% compared to 7nm

This change will also allow 5nm to offer a significant amount of 'scaling' of transistors compared to 7nm, with initial reports estimating an area reduction of 45% compared to 7nm FinFET, which is quite an improvement important.

Contextually, TSMC's 7nm FinFET node already offers an area reduction of 70% over the 16nm FinFET node, making the 5nm node extremely compact, although it is expected that the savings in Energy and performance increases provided by 5nm are less than 7nm.

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