ASML sells 15 EUV systems to ‘major US customer’

ASML has won an order for at least 15 EUV chip production machines for ‘one of its major US customers’. The customer, probably Intel, will use the new generation lithography machines for upcoming production processes.

This concerns at least 15 EUV systems, including two NXE:3350B models that will be delivered at the end of this year. The customer in question, who does not mention ASML by name, already has euv test systems. “Euv is now approaching volume launch,” said ASML CEO Peter Wennink. The lithography technology would preserve Moore’s Law for the semiconductor industry ‘well into the next decade’, ASML claims.

The euv machines must follow up on current immersion lithography systems and use light with a wavelength of 13.5nm, with which smaller structures can be applied to wafers. ASML has been working on the technology for more than ten years, but encountered several hurdles in getting the systems ready for production.

The customer ASML is talking about is probably Intel. Currently, Intel makes its Broadwell processors at 14nm and the American chipmaker expects to switch to 10nm production in early 2017. It is probably too early to use the now ordered euv machines, so they will probably be used for 7nm production.

By 2016, ASML’s machines should achieve a production rate of 1,500 wafers per day, which would be sufficient to deploy them cost-effectively for volume production. At the beginning of this year, ASML announced that it would achieve a speed of 1000 wafers per day.

You can read more about Moore’s Law in the background article: It’s Moore’s Law – A guide to smaller chips for fifty years. You can learn more about euv at ASML in the video report Reducing chips is great art.