Samsung Electronics will be Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) major competitor in the 7nm process segment, which will be an important area for the Taiwan-based foundry to maintain its technology leadership, according to TSMC chairman Morris Chang.

With its technology advantage over Samsung's, TSMC should be able to prevail in the 7nm process segment, said Chang.

Intel could be another TSMC's competitor in the 7nm field, but the relationship between Intel and TSMC is complementary rather than competing, Chang indicated. TSMC has developed a "very friendly" relationship with Intel, Chang said.

At TSMC's annual technology forum in May, company co-CEO Mark Liu disclosed the foundry's 7nm process already reached 30-40% yield for 128MB SRAM. TSMC will be the industry's first chipmaker to have its 7nm technology certified, Liu claimed.

TSMC is scheduled to move 7nm process technology to risk production in 2017 followed by volume production in 2018.

As for TSMC's 10nm process, volume production will kick off by 2017, Liu indicated. TSMC will fabricate 10nm chips at the Phase-5 and 6 facilities at Fab 15, the foundry's 12-inch wafer fab in central Taiwan.