Apple iPhone’s main chip supplier on track to begin 3nm chipset production later this year

The report adds that TSMC is planning to expand its 3nm process capacity to 55,000 units monthly by next year (2022).

iPhone 12. (Picjumbo)

Just last month a TSMC executive said that the company will soon start risk production of a 3nm fabrication process for its chipsets. However, according to a new report by Digitimes, Apple's main chip supplier is on track to begin risk production of 3-nanometre fabrication process in the second half of this year. It has been said that the foundry will be capable of producing 30,000 wafers using the more advanced technology.

The report adds that TSMC is planning to expand its 3nm process capacity to 55,000 units monthly by next year (2022). This is mainly said to be because of Apple's order commitment. The company may also scale up the output to 105000 units in 2023.

It's worth mentioning that the Apple iPhone 12 series last year became the first handset to come with 5nm chipsets made by TSMC. The 3nm process is said to be 15% powerful and 30% more power consuming over the 5nm chipsets. So, we may see 3nm processors being used in the next year's iPhone.

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As for the 5nm chipset, TSMC is planning to scale up the process manufacturing capacity even more. According to the report, the company will upscale it to 105000 wafers monthly in the first half of this year. This will be up from 90,000 units in the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC also plans to expand the process capacity to 120,000 units in the second half of this year.

It has been rumoured that Apple will allegedly use 5nm+ A15 chipset for its upcoming iPhone 13 series. 5nm+ or N5P, is said to be the performance enhanced version of the 5nm chipset that is used in iPhone 12.

According to a report by TrendForce, it is likely that the A16 processor in 2022 iPhones will use TSMC's 4nm process. This indirectly means that the 3nm technology might be used for potential A17 processor and for future Silicon in Mac devices.