The 3 nanometer (3 nm or 30 Å) lithography process is a technology node semiconductor manufacturing

process following the 5 nm process node.

Commercial integrated circuit manufacturing using 3 nm process is set to begin some time around 2023.

The term "3 nm" is simply a commercial name for a generation of a certain size and its technology, and

does not represent any geometry of the transistor.

Industry

Intel

P1278 Intel's 5-nanometer (renamed as Intel 20A) process node is expected to ramp around the 2H 2024/2025 timeframe.

TSMC

N3 technology will offer up to 70% logic density gain, up to 15% speed improvement at the same power and up to

30% power reduction at the same speed as compared with N5 technology (According to TSMCs website).

If this holds true we could see 300+ MT/mm2.

Samsung

On May 24, 2017 Samsung announced they will be switching to a transistor they call Multi-Bridge-Channel FET

(MBCFET), an extension of a Gate-all-around (GAA) FET.

This is planned for somewhere after the 5 nm node but the exact timeline or specification is currently unknown.

Specifications

Process Name
1st Production
Litho- graphy	Lithography
	Immersion
	Exposure
Wafer	Type
	Size
Tran- sistor	Type
	Voltage
Fin	Pitch
	Width
	Height
Gate Length (Lg)
Contacted Gate Pitch (CPP)
Minimum Metal Pitch (MMP)
SRAM bitcell	High-Perf (HP)
	High-Density (HD)
	Low-Voltage (LV)
DRAM bitcell	eDRAM

Intel		TSMC		TSMC		Samsung
P1276 (CPU/Chipset)		N3(B)		N3E N3 Enhanced , N3P, N3X		SF3E 3nm Gate All Around Early , SF3 3nm Gate All Around Plus
2024		2023		2024, 2025, 2026		2024
EUV		EUV		EUV		EUV
Yes		Yes		Yes		Yes
SE EUV+DUV SAPQ		SALELE		SALELE		SALELE
Bulk		Bulk		Bulk		Bulk
300 mm		300 mm		300 mm		300 mm
FinFET		FinFET		FinFET		GAAFET (MBCFET)
Value	4 nm Δ	Value	5 nm Δ	Value	5 nm Δ	Value	5 nm Δ
30 nm	1.0x	23 nm;	0.82x;	23nm;	0.82x;
	narrower
	taller
	1.0x;
50 nm	1.0x;	47nm after 4% optical bloat	0.88x drawn 0.92x actual	48 nm	0.94x;	48 nm	1.0x;
30 nm	1.0x;	23 nm	0.82x;	23 nm	0.82x;	28 nm	1.0x;
0.0300 μm2;	1.0x;
0.0240 μm2;	1.0x;	0.0199 μm2	0.95x;	0.0210 μm2	1.0x;
							.

3 nm process nodes

See also: Intel 7, Intel 4, and Intel 18A

	Samsung		TSMC				Intel
Process name	3GAE (SF3E)	3GAP (SF3)	N3 (N3B)	N3E	N3P	N3X	Intel 3
Transistor type	GAAFET (MBCFET)		FinFET
Transistor density (MTr/mm2)	150	190	197	216	224		-
Transistor gate pitch (nm)	40	-	45	48	-	-	50
Interconnect pitch (nm)	32	-	-	23	-	-	30
SRAM bit-cell size (μm2)	-	-	0.0199	0.021	-	-	-
Release status	2022 H1 risk production 2022 H2 production 2022 shipping	2024 Q1 risk production 2024 H2 production	2022 risk production 2023 production	2024	2025	2026	2024

2 nm process nodes

	Samsung				TSMC			Intel
Process name	SF2	SF2P	SF2X	SF2Z	N2	N2P	N2X	20A	18A
Transistor type	MBCFET				GAAFET			RibbonFET
Transistor density (MTr/mm2)	231	-	-	-	313	-	-	-	238
Transistor gate pitch (nm)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Interconnect pitch (nm)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
SRAM bit-cell size (μm2)	-	-	-	-	0.0175 μm²	-	-	-	0.021 μm²
Release status	2025 volume production	2026 volume production	2026 volume production	2027 volume production	2024 H2 risk production 2025 H2 volume production	2026 H2 volume production	2026 H2 volume production	2024 H1 risk production 2024 volume production Canceled 2024	2024 H2 risk production 2025 H1 production

3 nm Microprocessors

• Apple
  • A17 Pro
  • A18
  • A18 Pro
  • M3
  • M3 Pro
  • M3 MAX
  • M3 Ultra
  • M4
  • M4 Pro
  • M4 Max

• Qualcomm
  • Snapdragon 8 Elite
• MediaTek
  • Dimensity 9400

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

3 nm Microarchitectures

• AMD
  • Zen 5c
  • Zen 6

4 nm Microarchitectures

• AMD
  • Zen 5

• ARM • Cortex
  • Cortex-A520

• Neoverse V2
  • AWS Graviton4

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References

• Kinam Kim, President of Semiconductor Business, announced MBCFET for the node after 5 nm, May 24, 2017

(5 July 2022) Samsung 3nm GAAFET Enters Risk Production; Discusses Next-Gen Improvements.

(16 June 2023) https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10185353.

(27 May 2023) TSMC N3, and Challenges Ahead.

(27 Dec 2023) Apple APL1V02 A17 Pro Processor TSMC 3 nm FinFET Process Digital Floorplan Analysis.

(15 April 2024) Introducing TSMC N3E.

(18 June 2024) Intel Delivers Leading-Edge Foundry Node with Intel 3 Technology; on Path Back to Process Leadership.