TSMC believes that the lack of chips will continue until 2024-2025

In an interview, Dr. YJ Mii, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at TSMC, said that believes we will not see the end of the chip shortage until the next generations of factories currently under construction are up and running, which will be two or three years from now.

Interestingly, Mii isn’t directly blaming the pandemic like many others have for component shortages, instead pointing to the fact that chips are being used in almost all kinds of products these days. This, in turn, has led to a much higher demand for semiconductors, and the biggest problem is that there is no infrastructure to make enough of them.

He also believes that the industry as a whole overlooked the fact that demand for a wide range of semiconductors was growing as fast as it has in recent years. On the upside, it appears that semiconductor manufacturers have understood what is going on and are investing heavily to ensure that they can meet demand, both in the short and long term.

The rep mentions how difficult it is, even for a company like TSMC, to move their nodes forward today.

“Before, we could achieve a next-generation node by tweaking the process, but now for each generation we have to find new ways in terms of transistor architecture, materials, processes, and tools. In the past, we could shrink the chips, but that is not so simple anymore, said Dr. YJ Mii.”