ASML delivers first NXE:3600D euv system and aims to deliver 60 systems by 2023
ASML has delivered the first Twinscan NXE:3600D to a customer. This is ASML’s latest EUV system, with higher wafer productivity. In 2023, the Veldhoven-based company wants to scale up to be able to produce and supply sixty of these systems.
In an explainer video says ASML CEO Peter Wennink that the capacity for next year is still at 55 of these systems. For 2023, the company is working to see if it will succeed in expanding that capacity to 60 systems. This one NXE:3600D achieves wafer capacity 15 to 20 percent higher than that of the existing NXE:3400C.
Capacity expansion is not only an issue for extreme ultraviolet lithography. ASML also has plans to significantly expand capacity in deep ultraviolet lithography or duv. Wennink does not mention exact numbers yet, but says that it will be numbers in double digits. The expectation of increased duv capacity also depends on what the supply chain can do in terms of shortening cycles and the possibilities to realize more manpower, machines and factory space.
ASML has had a good second quarter, according to Wennink. The company received orders for chip machines in the second quarter with a significant total value of 8.3 billion euros. It was never this high before; in the first quarter of this year, that amount amounted to 4.7 billion euros. The largest part of that 8.3 billion euros is formed by orders for euv machines: 4.9 billion euros. With the current 8.3 billion euros added, ASML now has a total of 17.5 billion euros in orders on its books.
In the past second quarter, turnover amounted to 4 billion euros. That was even higher in the first quarter of this year: 4.4 billion euros. Wennink explains this relatively low-looking current turnover figure by pointing to a number of chip machines that were delivered in the second quarter without a factory acceptance test. During these tests, it is checked whether a produced machine meets the specifications and any problems are solved by ASML, so that the machine can immediately be put into use once it is on site at the customer. That step has been skipped more often recently to save time, but that also means that the sale of these systems will only contribute to turnover in the third quarter of this year. The profit amounted to one billion euros. That is also somewhat lower than the 1.3 billion euros from the first quarter of this year.