TSMC co-CEO Mark Liu told the assorted throngs at a recent event in Hsinchu that his outfit has been mass producing 16nm chips, and is looking to enter volume production of 10nm chips by the end of 2016.

The next plan is to start risk production of 7nm chips in early 2017, and meanwhile has been engaged in the development of 5nm process technology he said.
While TSMC's R&D for 5nm process continues, a team of the foundry's 300-400 engineers has already been involved in R&D for 3nm process, Liu claimed.

The company is apparently chatting to academics about how it can develop 2nm process technology. If all comes to fruition, said Liu Moore's Law will continue to be relevant.

TMSC said that its cunning plan includes smartphones being its main growth momentum. He thinks that smartphones will arrive with more innovative features and with more ICs and sensors than you can point a stick at.

Chipmakers will have to constantly upgrade their technologies for the manufacture of advanced ICs and sensors for phones, Liu said.

High-performance computing (HPC), Internet of Things (IoT) and system integration are also the applications that will drive TSMC's future growth, Liu added.