Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography
- Exponential Industry
- Technology Area
- 11 Milestones
Semiconductor photolithography using ~13.5 nm extreme ultraviolet light to pattern leading-edge sub-3nm logic and HBM memory wafers. High-volume manufacturing (HVM) relies on ASML Twinscan NXE/EXE scanners, Zeiss reflective optics, Trumpf CO2 lasers, and reflective photomasks. The category spans 0.33 NA EUV through High-NA 0.55 NA systems deployed across TSMC, Intel Foundry, and Samsung Electronics.
Hidden Factory
Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography
Tesla/SpaceX Terafab announcement (Grimes County)
Tesla and SpaceX announce Terafab in Grimes County, Texas — vertically integrated semiconductor complex aiming for over 1 TW of compute per year; research fab precursor at Giga Texas North Campus.
Elon Musk endorses FEL for Terafab EUV context
After speculation that a circular feature in the Terafab render is a particle accelerator / synchrotron for free-electron laser EUV, Elon Musk replies 'FEL FTW' — a directional endorsement of FEL-based EUV light sources for the greenfield fab (not a detailed technical specification).
Intel Foundry High-NA HVM on Panther Lake (18A)
ASML reports Intel Foundry using High-NA EUV on specific Intel 18A layers for a subset of Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) processors in high-volume manufacturing — first industry HVM logic product on High-NA EUV; yields dual-qualified vs NXE platform.
ASML ships first High-NA EUV system to Intel
ASML ships industry-first High-NA (0.55 NA, EXE platform) EUV lithography system to Intel; systems cost >$300M and ship in ~250 crates.
ASML ships first NXE:3100 to Samsung (first light)
ASML ships first pre-production TWINSCAN NXE:3100 EUV system to a Samsung research facility in South Korea; machine achieves first light on Christmas Eve 2010.
Madey SPIE interview highlights EUV FEL for lithography
In a SPIE interview, Madey identifies coherent EUV free-electron laser sources as critical to overcoming the EUV lithography source roadblock for Moore's Law.
TSMC to take delivery of ASML NXE:3100
ASML and TSMC announce TSMC will take delivery of a TWINSCAN NXE:3100 for R&D at Fab 12 GigaFab — first dedicated foundry on-site EUV development among six NXE:3100 systems planned worldwide.
ASML ships first full-field EUV alpha demo tools
ASML ships industry-first full-field EUV alpha demo tools (ADT) to imec (Leuven) and CNSE Albany NanoTech after achieving full-field scanning imaging and overlay targets; ZEISS optical trains on tools.
ASML EUCLIDES EUV consortium formed
ASML forms European industrial R&D consortium EUCLIDES with ZEISS and Oxford Instruments to industrialize extreme UV concept lithography systems.
ZEISS EUV optics workshop (Oberkochen)
Workshop at ZEISS in Oberkochen gathers chipmakers and research institutes around the vision of 13.5 nm optical EUV lithography.
ASML founded (ASM Lithography)
Philips and ASMI create ASM Lithography in Eindhoven to develop semiconductor lithography systems; ZEISS lens partnership established 1986.