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TSMC's N3 process to enter mass production in September, and the initial yield performance will be better than the initial stage of the 5nm N5 process.
Does anyone recall what the initial 5nm HVM yield was?
TSMC does not disclose yield numbers nor do TSMC customers due to strong NDAs. Given the high volume of wafers that are produced TSMC's yield numbers are greater than most foundries to maintain high margins. Samsung does not have the same yield requirements. It is not unusual for TSMC to say that one process ramps faster than the previous one so I would take this with a grain of salt.
I have heard only good things about N3 inside the ecosystem so I still expect it to be the biggest node for TSMC of the FinFET era, absolutely.
N5 entered "volume production in Q2 2020", and was first used for the Apple A14 chip. This chip was used in iPhone 12 series and iPad Air 4th gen which both launched October 2020. likely first used for the Apple A14 Bionic chip. If N3 is mass production in September, we're looking at enough yield to sell millions of small to medium size SoCs by year end. Very impressive.
(A14 was an 88mm2 chip at up to 3.1 GHz, so decent clock for the target market).