TSMC Likely to Lock up Apple A10, A11 Orders

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Oct. 26, 2016 – 

Alan Patterson, EETimes

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will probably make nearly all of the A10 and A11 processors for Apple this year and next because of a competitive advantage the Taiwan foundry has gained in packaging technology, according to analysts.

TSMC has been ramping its InFO (Integrated Fan Out) packaging for Apple's A10 processor used in the new iPhone 7 smartphone. InFO uses fan out wafer level packaging rather than a flip-chip substrate to provide a 20% reduction in package thickness, a 20% speed gain and 10% better thermal performance.

The commercialization of this advanced packaging technology shifts semiconductor manufacturing into the "more than Moore" era as Moore's Law is expected to reach its physical limits at 5nm design rules. TSMC has become the first with the new focus on packaging that increases chip I/O density beyond traditional ball-grid array technology by allowing multiple chips to be combined without an intervening substrate.

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