It's not just the nodes AFAIK. There's huge demand for EUV machines but they are lower margin products for the company that makes them.
I don't really understand this business, or any business really, so don't take my word for it
I don't really understand this business, or any business really, so don't take my word for it
ASML, a Dutch company, is at the core of TSMCs success. But the machines are only one part of the ecosystem... the buildings to house them are incredibly expensive because you need the cleanest of clean rooms you can get, and then you need expert staff to operate these, and since there isn't much of a domestic chip industry any more in the Western countries, that knowledge has long ago moved off to Taiwan and South Korea.
And on top of that, Western wages are extremely high and environmental regulations are extremely strict after half of Silicon Valley became a superfund site from all the stuff that leeched into the soil from decades of chipmaking.
Just wanted to add that since I see people only mention ASML often here. They are very important, but there is so much more to TSMC’s success.
EUV productivity is a big problem. Currently machines are stopped every few shifts for cleaning tin from mirrors. Even without that, light sources never managed to live to the original power output promise.
There are few known ways to produce EUV light besides tin plasma.
One is in using some plasmonic quantum processes, I can't even fathom how to describe, to produce microwatts of EUV. The other is a free electron laser to produce potentially kilowatts of it non-stop.
The later approach requires to build the whole fab around a synchrotron, a commitment currently nobody can take even with current surreal capex numbers.
https://openstreetmap.de/karte.html?zoom=17&lat=53.58825&lon...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_implantation [2] https://www.axcelis.com/products/purion-xe-series-high-energ...
edit: add link to cool ion implanter machine pics