TSMC hit by 3nm delay fears over Covid-19 Lock-downs

TSMC is on schedule with its 5 nm process plan, but its 3 nm trial production may get delayed: The world's largest contract chipmaker is planning to launch mass production of its 3 nm process sometime in 2022, and media reported Monday that installation of production equipment in its 3 nm wafer fab in Tainan will be delayed to October from June this year, which will delay its trial production set for 2021. The COVID-19 escalation has hit Europe, and [Netherlands-based] ASML Holding, which is TSMC's major production equipment supplier, has been affected by a lockdown. It is understandable that the progress of TSMC's new technology has been affected.

Below a comparison of the Covid-19 daily new confirmed deaths, which is the only comparable parameter to use due to different testing capabilities and frequencies, in time and nation to nation. As can be seen the situation in Asian is under control after the gotten hit by the first wave of the Coronavirus. The European situation is stabilizing: Italy, Netherlands, Germany France, others look similar and are flattening the curve. In The USA situation is escalating. Many nations in Europe are forecasting a lift of Lockdown in May but are very careful, as an example Germany will decide in 19 April how to proceed according to Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel.

BALD Engineering AB continues to monitor the Covid-19 situation due to lockdowns that affect the  the semiconductor industry – Stay Safe!

Google Finance (2020-04-02, 10:39 CET)

Sources:

Taiwan shares edge lower, TSMC hit by 3nm delay fears

https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202003300015

Our World of data: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus

-----------
By Abhishekkumar Thakur, Jonas Sundqvist

ALD - Let´s get it rolling

First of all, an apology to all readers of the BALD Engineering ALD News Blog. There have been less than usual activities on the blog for the last couple of weeks. Recently I decided to quit my good safe job at Fraunhofer to start working as an ALD consultant and Blogger full time under BALD Engineering AB (LINK) and first and fore and most for TECHCET LLC CA (LINK). 

In February, I practiced my new life during our 2 week family winter holiday in Colombia and took some beautiful pictures from my different home offices on that fantastic trip.

 

Home Office at Playa Blanca, Isla Baru, Colombia

 

More recently, however, the Corona crisis hit us all, and I think everyone has gone through a time to adapt to a different type of life under these circumstances, and my romantic picture of the home office has changed a bit for now.

The first thing that hit me was postponing workshops and conferences, and I think many of you were looking forward to the ALD events in 2020. Here is a status overview of events I am either involved in or planned to join.

AVS ASD 2020 in Stanford, USA - will be moved (LINK)

EFDS ALD for Industry 2020 in Freiburg Germany - is moved to 2-3 December (LINK)

Novel High-k Workshop 2020 in Dresden, Germany - cancelled (LINK)
 
The Critical Materials Conference CMC2020 in Hillsboro, USA  - is moved to (LINK)

AVS ALD/ALE 2020 in Ghent Belgium - still scheduled to take place pending the situation (LINK)

Please let me know which 2020 events in addition to these that should be tracked here!

ALD - Let´s get it rolling

With this as a background, I decided that I need to get things moving again and that is why I now offer all of you who planned to participate in any of these or other ALD events 2020 to send me research news and /or promotional material fro your research or commercial products that you would like to get out there to the ALD community published here at this blog and shared in social media. 

Please send the material to me, and we will format it for the blog format and push it out to the ALD community - it is for free!

Two blogs (Strem and Beneq) are already in the pipeline, and I hope to see more from you - Stay Safe!

Contact: jonas.sundqvist@baldengineering.com

Typical back yard Hostel Home Office. Medellin, Colombia.

Hostel at the Caribbean, Always good coffee in Colombia!

 

Picosun reinforces local operations to ensure customer satisfaction during the COVID-19 epidemic

ESPOO, Finland, 23rd March 2020 – Picosun Group’s first priorities are customer satisfaction and health and wellbeing of the Group’s employees and customers. Picosun takes extremely seriously the global threat posed by the COVID-19 novel coronavirus epidemic and follows the rules set by governments and WHO. As the epidemic restricts global traveling, the importance of local offices and subsidiaries close to the customers is of utmost importance.

The last years have been the time of rapid growth and expansion for Picosun. Strong emphasis has been put on new recruitments especially on the service and support sector. Trained and qualified staff of service engineers are on call at the Group’s US locations in Texas, Arizona, and California and Asian locations in Japan, China, Taiwan, and Singapore. Dedicated sales and support personnel in Germany and France are available for the Group’s European customers. Local process support is also available on each continent.

At Picosun’s Finnish headquarters and local offices employees are encouraged to remote work from home whenever possible. Meetings are arranged virtually via video links and online platforms and inviting external visitors to the company’s premises is minimized to bare necessities. Cleaning of the premises and other hygiene measures have been intensified. All recruitment interviews are conducted remotely.

Despite of the challenging times, Picosun’s customer projects and deliveries continue. Process support and applications consultancy is always available from our Ph.D. level experts, and our Helpdesk serves 24/7 at support@picosun.com. Delivered PICOSUN® ALD system installations and commissioning, as well as customer support on-site, are taken care of by local Picosun offices with their trained and experienced staff.

“All of us here at Picosun wish good health and safety to everybody in this difficult and unexpected situation. In times like this, collaboration is the key to success and speedy recovery. Our business continues and we will put all our effort in sustaining the high level of quality that is the trademark of Picosun. We will further intensify our efforts to bring the benefits of ALD to medical industry. ALD is the very technology that enables our modern, mobile, data-driven and interconnected global society. Now is the time when this society can truly work together for better future,” says Jussi Rautee, CEO of the Picosun Group.

For more information regarding your projects or deliveries, please contact your respective Picosun sales or support contact person. For quotations for our ALD equipment and solutions, or process demo, please contact sales@picosun.com or coating@picosun.com, respectively.

As several expos and conferences the Group is sponsoring or exhibiting at have been postponed, please see the new dates in our event calendar on our website. Picosun is looking forward to meeting you all again later this year in good health and spirits!