Intel said last week that it had begun mass production using EUV lithography machines at its $18.5 billion Irish factory, calling it a “milestone moment.”
Intel general manager of technology development Ann Kelleher said that Intel will be the first to introduce the next generation of high numerical aperture (High-NA) EUV lithography machine this year. Intel has previously stated that High-NA technology is at the 18A node. It is only used for device development and verification, and will be officially put into production on nodes after 18A.
The U.S. company said that with its High-NA EUV lithography machine, it could theoretically play a key role in Intel’s journey to achieve its “five-generation process in four years.”
Ann Kelleher said that they are currently on track to achieve this goal, with two manufacturing processes completed, and the third process “is coming quickly”, and the last two processes have made very good progress.
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ASML Chief Executive Peter Wennink told Reuters in an interview last month that despite some pushback from suppliers, the company would remain on track to deliver High NA EUV machines by the end of the year as previously set.
Intel expects to receive the first batch of High-NA EUV lithography machines in Oregon later this year, Kelleher said, and Intel will be the first chipmaker to get the machines.
ASML said that a High-NA EUV equipment is about the same size as a truck, and each equipment exceeds US$150 million, which can meet the needs of various chip manufacturers and can be used in the future. Making smaller, more advanced chips within a decade.
At present, the most advanced chips are 4/5 nanometer-level processes. Samsung and TSMC will also produce 3nm technology in the second half of the year. For Twinscan NXE:3400C and similar systems using ASML EUV lithography technology, most of them have 0.33 NA. (numerical aperture) optics, providing 13 nm resolution.
Currently, this resolution size is sufficient for single modes at the 7 nm / 6 nm node (36 nm ~ 38 nm) and 5nm (30 nm ~ 32 nm), but as the pitch becomes lower than 30 nm (over With the arrival of the 5 nm class node), 13 nm resolution may require double exposure technology, which will be the mainstream method in the next few years.
For the post-3nm era, ASML and its partners are developing a new EUV lithography machine-Twinscan EXE:5000 series. This series of machines will have a 0.55 NA (high NA) lens with a resolution of 8nm, thus enabling 3-nm Reduce processes as much as possible, reduce costs and improve yield in nm and above nodes.
