3 ms·
> I've just learned that the ESP32 is manufactured on a TSMC 40mm process. That's essentially caveman tech. But it's cheap, and MOQs are still achievable for m
by baybal2 6y ago
> I've just learned that the ESP32 is manufactured on a TSMC 40mm process. That's essentially caveman tech.
But it's cheap, and MOQs are still achievable for mortals.
This is why.
There are way more reasons older litho processes persist beyond just them still making tons of money.
40nm for a microcontroller is rather impressive, given that the most are made with anything up to 180nm.
It takes more effort to design a chip with scaling down of geometries, lead times, and test samples are getting longer to get. Mask sets get more expensive. Less fabs are available to produce the chip. Some devices become unavailable at lower geometries.
And so on, and on...