While TSMC increase 5nm process capacity to 120,000 wafers monthly, MediaTek gets full support from TSMC

The world’s largest semiconductor foundry in Taiwan has been the centre of attraction of the silicon valley for the last few years. It has got some of the biggest clients like Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm and MediaTek under its pockets and looks to progress even further down the line.

Its new 5nm process wafers are on high demand from customers like Apple, AMD and MediaTek, so, even though in a middle of a draught situation in Taiwan, TSMC is still positive about increasing its 5nm process capacity to 120,000 wafers monthly.

As per Digitimes’s latest report, TSMC is in a hurry to expand its 5nm process capacity and it is expected to hike by one-third in the second half of 2021 compared to that in the last quarter of 2020. 

At first, it plans to scale up its 5nm process manufacturing capacity to 105,000 wafers monthly in the first half of 2021, up from 90,000 units in fourth-quarter 2020. Then a substantial increase to further expand the 5nm process capacity to 120,000 units in the second half of this year, as per Digitimes’s industry sources.

On the other hand, MediaTek, who has emerged to be the number one smartphone SoC maker overtaking Qualcomm at the end of last year, is getting support from its native foundry TSMC. MediaTek is said to have obtained sufficient 6nm and 7nm process capacity at TSMC, which will allow the mobile SoC specialist to boost its 5G chip shipments in 2021, according to Digitimes.