ASML’s High-NA EUV lithography machine is set to transform chipmaking
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ASML’s EUV lithography machine is on show throughout the 4th China Worldwide Import Expo (CIIE) on the Nationwide Exhibition and Conference Heart in Shanghai.
China Information Service | China Information Service | Getty Photographs
Dutch agency ASML, one of Europe’s hottest stocks, is engaged on a brand new model of its excessive ultraviolet lithography machine, which is used to carve patterns onto items of silicon that kind essentially the most superior chips on the earth.
Headquartered in Veldhoven, a small village close to the Dutch metropolis of Eindhoven, ASML is the one agency on the earth able to making these extremely complicated EUV machines — nevertheless it’s not stopping there.
The corporate’s present EUV machine is utilized by TSMC, Samsung and Intel to make chips that find yourself within the newest crop of computer systems and smartphones. However there is a new model of the EUV machine within the pipeline, dubbed Excessive NA, that might permit chipmakers to construct much more refined chips to energy the subsequent technology of digital gadgets. NA stands for numerical aperture.
ASML was born in 1984 when electronics large Philips and chip-machine producer Superior Semiconductor Supplies Worldwide determined to create a brand new firm to develop lithography programs for the rising semiconductor business. Referred to as ASM Lithography, the corporate started its work inauspiciously — in a shed subsequent to a Philips workplace in Eindhoven.
At the moment, ASML is valued at $329 billion, and a few tech buyers count on it to be price $500 billion by the tip of 2022. It’s the largest tech firm in Europe by market worth and one of many largest on the earth. It employs over 31,000 staff throughout the Netherlands, the USA, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China.
How EUV machines work
EUV machines shine exceptionally slim beams of sunshine onto silicon wafers which have been handled with “photoresist” chemical compounds. Intricate patterns are created on the wafer the place the sunshine comes into contact with the chemical compounds, that are rigorously laid out beforehand. This course of, which ends up in the formation of the all-important transistors, is called lithography.
Transistors are one of many primary constructing blocks of contemporary electronics, they usually allow an electrical present to movement round a circuit. Typically talking, the extra transistors you’ll be able to match onto a chip, the extra highly effective and environment friendly that chip will probably be.
Not each lithography system that ASML makes has EUV capabilities. EUV is the corporate’s newest know-how, which it launched for high-volume manufacturing just a few years in the past. DUV (deep ultraviolet) remains to be the workhorse of the business.
Chris Miller, an assistant professor on the Fletcher College of Regulation and Diplomacy at Tufts College, advised CNBC that chipmakers need to use the narrowest wavelength of sunshine attainable in lithography in order that they’ll match extra transistors onto each bit of silicon. The TSMC chips within the newest Apple iPhones, which have been created with ASML’s EUV machines, have round 10 billion transistors on them.
Growing the brand new machine
Excessive NA is about to be even larger, dearer and extra sophisticated than ASML’s present EUV machine.
“It features a novel optics design and requires considerably quicker phases,” an ASML spokesperson advised CNBC. They added that the Excessive NA machine has the next decision that may allow 1.7x smaller chip options and a pair of.9x elevated chip density.
“With this platform, clients will scale back the numbers of course of steps,” the spokesperson continued. “This will probably be a robust motivation for them to undertake the know-how. The platform will provide important defect, price and cycle time reductions.”
For context, every of the present EUV machines reportedly has over 100,000 elements, they usually take 40 freight containers or 4 jumbo jets to ship. They price round $140 million every, in accordance with experiences.
“They don’t seem to be resting on their laurels,” mentioned Miller, including that the corporate’s new machine will permit much more particular etchings on silicon chips.
The primary Excessive NA machine remains to be beneath growth and it is set to be out there for early entry from 2023 in order that chipmakers can begin experimenting with it and learn to make it work.
Prospects will then find a way use them for their very own analysis and growth in 2024 and 2025. They’re probably for use in high-volume manufacturing from 2025 onward.
In July, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger mentioned the corporate expects to be the primary recipient of ASML’s Excessive NA machine.
“I might wager that he paid lots for that proper as a result of he is actually not the one individual that wish to get their fingers on this machine first,” Miller mentioned.
Maurits Tichelman, a vp of gross sales and advertising and marketing at Intel, advised CNBC: “Excessive NA EUV is the subsequent main know-how change on the EUV roadmap.”
He added: “We’re positioned to obtain the primary manufacturing Excessive NA EUV device within the business and are driving to allow its introduction in 2025,” Tichelman mentioned. He declined to say what number of machines Intel has ordered.
The brand new Excessive NA EUV device shifts from a .33 aperture lens to a sharper .55 aperture to allow increased decision patterning, Tichelman mentioned.
A better aperture permits for a wider EUV beam contained in the machine earlier than it hits the wafer. The broader this beam, the extra intense it may be when it hits the wafer, which will increase how precisely strains are printed. This in flip permits smaller geometries and far smaller pitches, growing density.
Alan Priestley, a semiconductor analyst at Gartner, advised CNBC that ASML’s new machine will permit chip producers to make chips beneath three nanometers. Essentially the most superior chips on the earth are presently three nanometers and above.
The Excessive NA machines will price about $300 million, which is twice as a lot as the present EUV machines, they usually’ll want complicated new lens know-how, Priestley added.
How chips are made
Chips are sometimes comprised of 100-150 silicon wafers layered on high of each other. Solely essentially the most sophisticated layers have to be made with EUV machines, whereas extra easy layers may be made with DUV machines, which ASML additionally makes, and different instruments.
EUV machines take years to construct and ASML can solely ship so lots of them in any given 12 months. Final 12 months, it bought simply 31, in accordance with its financials, and it is made round solely 100 in complete.
“In comparison with conventional EUV machines, a Excessive NA machine supplies a much bigger lens able to printing smaller patterns, enabling environment friendly manufacturing of extra highly effective chips,” mentioned Syed Alam, international semiconductor lead at Accenture.
“Chipmakers trying to print smaller options onto chips have needed to depend on double or triple patterning strategies, which is time-consuming,” he added. “With a Excessive NA EUV machine, they can print these options in a single layer, leading to a quicker turnaround time and higher course of flexibility.”
Chipmakers should strike a stability between higher efficiency and the larger prices related to extra refined equipment, Alam mentioned.
“That is notably true with Excessive NA EUV machines the place bigger lenses suggest increased acquisition and upkeep prices,” he mentioned.
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