Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited formally announced to launch the research and development of 2nm process, making it the world's first company to start the 2nm process R&D.

According to TSMC, the R&D of 2nm process needs four years, which means it can be put into production in 2024 the soonest. Before that, the 5nm process and 3nm process will be transitional products to meet the chip demands of customers.

For the 3nm process, TSMC revealed that its first factory in Taiwan will start production in 2021 and realize bulk production in 2022. TSMC's 3nm R&D factory is located in Hsinchu and it already passed environmental evaluation. At present, TSMC has about 7,000 semiconductor process R&D talents in Hsinchu.

In addition, TSMC announced to prepare the testing products of 5nm chip set and the bulk production is expected to start from 2020. It is said that TSMC's 5nm process chip size is reduced by 45% while its performance is increased by about 15%.