TSMC 40nm yields are disappointing

Bad news for chip maker and GPU manufacturers.

One chipmaker is having a hell of a job increasing the yields of the wafers it fabs on its 40nm process.

According to Digitimes, Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) can't get its manufacturing process to yield more than 70 per cent, which is causing huge problems for the production of next-generation graphics processors and FPGA (field-programmable gate array) chips.

It is starting to look like some 40nm products are going to be thin on the ground thanks largely to TSMC's chamber matching problems. The outfit admitted that there was a problem last year but was sure that it would be fixed by the end of 2009. It is not clear if it has fixed the problem yet but it still has past shortfalls to overcome.

TSMC is the foundary of choice for GPU vendors AMD and Nvidia as well as FPGA chip supplier Altera.

Other chipmakers are apparently also running flat out trying to cover the hole that the failing process has left in chip production rates.