5 nm process

Insemiconductor manufacturing, theInternational Roadmap for Devices and Systemsdefines the"5 nm" processas theMOSFETtechnology nodefollowing the"7 nm"node. In 2020,SamsungandTSMCentered volume production of "5 nm" chips, manufactured for companies includingApple,Huawei,Mediatek,QualcommandMarvell.
The term "5 nm" does not indicate that any physical feature (such as gate length, metal pitch or gate pitch) of the transistors is fivenanometersin size. Historically, the number used in the name of a technology node represented the gate length, but it started deviating from the actual length to smaller numbers (byIntel) around 2011.According to the projections contained in the 2021 update of theInternational Roadmap for Devices and Systemspublished by IEEE Standards Association Industry Connection, the 5 nm node is expected to have a gate length of 18 nm, a contacted gate pitch of 51 nm, and a tightest metal pitch of 30 nm.In real world commercial practice, "5 nm" is used primarily as a marketing term by individual microchip manufacturers to refer to a new, improved generation of silicon semiconductor chips in terms of increased transistor density (i.e. a higher degree of miniaturization), increased speed and reduced power consumption compared to the previous7 nm process.
Quantum tunnellingeffects through the gate oxide layer on "7 nm" and "5 nm"transistorsbecame increasingly difficult to manage using existing semiconductor processes.Single-transistor devices below 7 nm were first demonstrated by researchers in the early 2000s. In 2002, anIBMresearch team including Bruce Doris, Omer Dokumaci,Meikei Ieongand Anda Mocuta fabricated a6-nanometresilicon-on-insulator(SOI) MOSFET.
In 2003, a Japanese research team atNEC, led by Hitoshi Wakabayashi and Shigeharu Yamagami, fabricated the first 5 nm MOSFET.
In 2015,IMECandCadencefabricated 5 nm test chips. The fabricated test chips were not fully functional devices, but rather are to evaluate patterning ofinterconnectlayers.
In 2015,Inteldescribed a lateral nanowire (or gate-all-around) FET concept for the "5 nm" node.
In 2017,IBMrevealed that it had created "5 nm"siliconchips,using silicon nanosheets in agate-all-aroundconfiguration (GAAFET), a break from the usualFinFETdesign. The GAAFET transistors used had 3 nanosheets stacked on top of each other, covered in their entirety by the same gate, just like FinFETs usually have several physical fins side by side that are electrically a single unit and are covered in their entirety by the same gate. IBM's chip measured 50 mmand had 600 million transistors per mm, for a total of 30 billion transistors (1667 nmper transistor or 41 nm actual transistor spacing).
In April 2019,Samsung Electronicsannounced they had been offering their "5 nm" process (5LPE) tools to their customers since 2018 Q4.In April 2019, TSMC announced that their "5 nm" process (CLN5FF, N5) had begun risk production, and that full chip design specifications were now available to potential customers. The N5 process can useEUVLon up to 14 layers, compared to only 5 or 4 layers in N6 and N7++.For the expected 28 nm minimum metal pitch,SALELEis the proposed best patterning method.
For their "5 nm" process, Samsung started process defect mitigation by automated check and fix, due to occurrence of stochastic (random) defects in the metal and via layers.
In October 2019, TSMC reportedly started sampling 5 nmA14 processors for Apple.At the 2020 IEEE IEDM conference, TSMC reported their 5 nm process had 1.84x higher density than their 7nm process.At IEDM 2019, TSMC revealed two versions of 5 nm, a DUV version with a 5.5-track cell, and an (official) EUV version with a 6-track cell.
In December 2019, TSMC announced an average yield of approximately 80%, with a peak yield per wafer of over 90% for their "5 nm" test chips with a die size of 17.92 mm.In mid 2020 TSMC claimed its (N5) "5 nm" process offered 1.8x the density of its "7 nm" N7 process, with 15% speed improvement or 30% lower power consumption; an improved sub-version (N5P or N4) was claimed to improve on N5 with +5% speed or -10% power.
On 13 October 2020, Apple announced a newiPhone 12lineup using theA14. Together with theHuawei Mate 40lineup using theHiSilicon Kirin 9000, the A14 and Kirin 9000 were the first devices to be commercialized on TSMC's "5 nm" node. Later, on 10 November 2020, Apple also revealed three new Mac models using theApple M1, another 5 nm chip. According to Semianalysis, the A14 processor has a transistor density of 134 million transistors per mm.
In October 2021, TSMC introduced a new member of its "5 nm" process family: N4P. Compared to N5, the node offered 11% higher performance (6% higher vs N4), 22% higher power efficiency, 6% higher transistor density and lower mask count. TSMC expected first tapeouts by the second half of 2022.
In December 2021, TSMC announced a new member of its "5 nm" process family designed for HPC applications: N4X. The process featured optimized transistor design and structures, reduced resistance and capacitance of targeted metal layers and high-density MiM capacitors. The process was expected at that time tooffer up to 15% higher performance vs N5 (or up to 4% vs N4P) at 1.2 V and supply voltage in excess of 1.2 V. TSMC, at that time, said that they expectedN4X to enter risk production by the first half of 2023.
In June 2022, Intel presented some details about the Intel 4 process (known as "7 nm" before renaming in 2021): the company's first process to use EUV, 2x higher transistor density compared to Intel 7 (known as "10 nm" ESF (Enhanced Super Fin) before the renaming), use of cobalt-clad copper for the finest five layers of interconnect, 21.5% higher performance at iso power or 40% lower power at iso frequency at 0.65 V compared to Intel 7 etc. Intel's first product to be fabbed on Intel 4 was Meteor Lake, powered on in Q2 2022 and scheduled for shipping in 2023.Intel 4 has contacted gate pitch of 50 nm, both fin and minimum metal pitch of 30 nm, and library height of 240 nm. Metal-insulator-metal capacitance was increased to 376 fF/μm², roughly 2x compared to Intel 7.The process was optimized for HPC applications and supported voltage from <0.65 V to >1.3 V. WikiChip's transistor density estimate for Intel 4 was 123.4 Mtr./mm², 2.04x from 60.5 Mtr./mm² for Intel 7. However, high-density SRAM cell had scaled only by 0.77x (from 0.0312 to 0.024 μm²) and high-performance cell by 0.68x (from 0.0441 to 0.03 μm²) compared to Intel 7.
On 27 September 2022,AMDofficially launched theirRyzen 7000series of central processing units, based on the TSMC N5 process andZen 4microarchitecture.Zen 4 marked the first utilization of the 5 nm process for x86-based desktop processors. In December 2022 AMD also launched theRadeon RX 7000 seriesof graphics processing units based onRDNA 3, which also used the TSMC N5 process.
On 26 August 2024IBMintroduced their Telum II processor, based on Samsung's 5 nm process.
Transistor gate pitch is also referred to as CPP (contacted poly pitch) and interconnect pitch is also referred to as MMP (minimum metal pitch).
"3 nm" is the usual term for the next node after "5 nm". As of 2023,TSMChas started producing chips for select customers, whileSamsungandIntelhave plans for 2024.
"3.5 nm" has also been given as a name for the first node beyond "5 nm".