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All of today’s top tier Android smartphones use chips that have 28 nanometer transistors. In order for tomorrow’s smartphones to go faster, those transistors need to shrink. Why? Because the smaller a transistor is, the less power it consumes, and the less heat is puts out.
So what comes after 28 nanometers? According to EE Times, the answer is 20 nanometers, but that hasn’t stopped TSMC from announcing that they’re going to start getting ready to make 16 nanometer chips by the end of 2013. They also said that they hope to be able to make 10 nanometer chips by the end of 2015.
Why is TSMC being so agressive? Because their closest two competitors, Samsung and Global Foundries, are catching up. TSMC makes roughly 1.3 million wafers per month. Samsung does 900,000. By 2017, TSMC says they want to hit 13.5 million wafers per month, which is an order of magnitude increase.
There are also rumors that say Apple wants to stop ordering their processors from Samsung and instead switch to TSMC, which explains the significant expansion plans.
