Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is set to move its 7nm process technology to volume production in 2018, an improved version of the 7nm process using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) will be ready for volume production a year later, according to company co-CEO CC Wei.

TSMC's manufacturing technologies are offered to target four main applications - mobile, high-performance computing, automotive and IoT, Wei indicated. TSMC has already moved its 10nm process technology focusing mainly on mobile devices to volume production.

TSMC will offer its 7nm process technology for mobile products, HPC and automotive applications. The foundry has had 12 7nm tape-outs for mobile devices, and expects to finalize 7nm chip designs for HPC, Wei said.

As for automotive, TSMC's 7nm process will meet the AEC-Q100 (Grade 0) standard in 2018, Wei noted.

TSMC's 5nm node technology will target both the mobile products and HPC applications, with risk production slated for 2019, Wei said.

For IoT applications, TSMC will offer 55nm, 40nm and 28nm ULP processes and expects to have more than 70 customer product designs in 2017, according to Wei.

In addition, TSMC forecast the global smartphone shipments will rise 6% on year to 1.552 billion units in 2017. Shipments to the China market will increase a larger 10% to 852 million units this year.