The Power of EUV Lithography
ASML Twinscan's NXE and EXE systems utilize extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light to enable the production of high-resolution microchips crucial for powering today's advanced technologies. By harnessing light with a wavelength of just 13.5 nm - nearly X-ray level - EUV lithography pushes the boundaries of Moore's Law, facilitating the creation of cutting-edge transistor designs and chip architectures.
Driving Innovation and Performance
Leading-edge microchips, containing billions of transistors, benefit from the continuous advancement enabled by EUV lithography. With each new node, chipmakers can introduce more intricate and compact transistors, enhancing chip performance in terms of power, speed, and energy efficiency. This technology underpins smart devices like smartphones, gaming consoles, and wearables, while also supporting emerging technologies such as augmented reality and artificial intelligence.
EUV Systems for Scalability and Affordability
EUV lithography plays a pivotal role in making chip scaling more affordable and sustaining the semiconductor industry's progress in line with Moore's Law. These systems allow for the printing of the most intricate layers on a chip, alongside deep ultraviolet (DUV) systems. Both EUV and DUV technologies will coexist for the foreseeable future, driving innovation and enabling advanced chip manufacturing processes.
EXE Systems: The Future of Chip Manufacturing
The EXE systems, known as 'High NA', represent the latest generation in EUV lithography, boasting a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.55. These cutting-edge optics deliver higher contrast and a remarkable resolution of just 8 nm, enabling high-volume chip production and geometric scaling well into the next decade. Chipmakers utilizing the EXE platform can expect reduced defects, costs, and cycle times, paving the way for more efficient and advanced chip manufacturing.
NXE Systems: Powering Advanced Logic and Memory Chips
ASML's NXE lithography systems are instrumental in the high-volume manufacturing of advanced Logic and Memory chips, leveraging a groundbreaking 13.5 nm EUV light source. With the ability to print microchip features at 13 nm resolution, these systems are indispensable for creating the complex foundation layers of 7 nm, 5 nm, and 3 nm nodes. The TWINSCAN NXE series supports the production of 2 nm Logic nodes and cutting-edge DRAM nodes, showcasing the versatility and power of EUV lithography.
The Road to EUV: A Journey of Innovation
The development of EUV technology was a complex and lengthy process, taking over two decades and a significant investment of €6 billion in R&D. ASML's acquisition of Cymer, a specialist in light source technology, accelerated the progress of EUV lithography. Despite numerous technical challenges, the evolution of EUV has transformed chip manufacturing, laying the groundwork for continued advancements in semiconductor technology.
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