Citing industry sources, DIGITIMES reports that TSMC will suspend its 28nm foundry price hike in the second half of the year to maintain long-term customer relationships, following a slight increase in the price of the process.

TSMC plans to raise the target of its 28nm expansion plan for its Nanjing plant, raising its monthly capacity target from 40,000 to 100,000 pieces, an increase of up to 1.5 times, with mass production expected in the second half of 2022 and the build-out of 40,000 pieces of capacity in a single month to be completed by mid-2023.

TSMC was the first to launch the 28nm process as early as 2011, and in TSMC's 2020 revenue structure, 28nm process chips account for 12.67% of total revenue, second only to 7nm and 16nm, TSMC's third-largest revenue generator.

The 28nm process has the advantages of high performance, low power consumption, and low cost, and can achieve the highest cost performance between the 16/14/12nm and 40nm process. According to IBS data, the cost of the 28nm process is $ 0.629 billion, to 7nm, 5nm, the price quickly skyrocketed, 5nm directly to $ 476 million.

In addition, the 28nm process is widely applicable. Due to global chip shortage, the power management chip (PMIC), display driver chip (DDI), and MCU are inseparable from the 28nm process, and most of the automotive chips also focus on this process.