ASML gets to 'first light' landmark on new EUV lithography system - report
Feb. 28, 2024 8:47 AM ET
By: Ravikash, SA News Editor
 Sundry Photography
The Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment maker ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) achieved "first light" on its new High NA EUV lithography system, Reuters reported.
The milestone means that the tool is functioning but not at full performance. Ann Kelleher, head of technology development at Intel ( INTC), had first informed about the progress at a discussion at the SPIE lithography conference on Tuesday in San Jose, the report added.
Lithography systems use focused light beams to help create the small circuitry of computer chips. ASML ( ASML) High NA EUV tools, which cost over $350M each, are anticipated to help enable new generations of smaller, faster chips.
The first High NA tool is at ASML's facility in Veldhoven, Netherlands and the second is under assembly at an Intel facility near Hillsboro, Oregon, the report noted.
The first light milestone had been reached "very recently," said an ASML spokesperson.
In Kelleher's discussion she noted that the Veldhoven machine has seen "first light on wafer in resist," means the machine was used in a test on a silicon wafer which has been treated with light-sensitive chemicals so that it is ready to get a circuit pattern, according to the report. |
