A17 Bionic, M3 Yields At TSMC’s 3nm Process Are Sitting At 55 Percent, Apple Said To Pay For The Known Good Dies Rather Standard Wafer Prices

wccftech.com:

Despite the fact that Apple is rumored to have secured 90 percent of TSMC’s 3nm chipsets for the A17 Bionic and M3, the yield rate still has a long way to go up from that 55 percent figure. Due to wafer production not delivering the best output, TSMC is said to be charging Apple for its good dies rather than standard wafer prices.

At a yield rate of 55 percent, nearly half of the wafers produced by TSMC on its 3nm process will be categorized as a bad batch, so it will have little use for Apple and its products. According to EE Times, Brett Simpson, senior analyst at Arete Research, believes that both parties were able to circumvent around this pricing obstacle, with Apple only paying for the good wafer batches instead of paying standard pricing.

Knowing that the California-based giant is a lucrative client, not just for the 3nm process but for future cutting-edge nodes, TSMC likely obliged. We also reported earlier that TSMC’s monthly wafer output for 3nm chips could reach 100,000 units by the end of 2023, as it expects high demand for the iPhone 15 series. However, with a yield rate of 55 percent, only 55,000 wafers could be considered ‘good’ and acceptable to Apple’s quality standards.

The only time TSMC’s biggest customer would end up paying standard wafer pricing is if the 3nm yield rate reaches 70 percent, but according to the report, that is not expected to happen before the first half of 2024. Next year, Apple could pay up to $17,000 per wafer, assuming those yields pick up.

There was also a rumor doing the rounds stating that instead of N3B, which is TSMC’s first 3nm iteration, Apple could switch to the N3E process in 2024, which is said to have better yields and a lowered production cost. Unfortunately, switching to