ASML has target for wafer exposure euv machines for 2016 in sight

ASML exposed 1488 wafers in a day in a test with an euv system. The average over a period of three days was fourteen hundred exposed wafers. The manufacturer of machines for chip production therefore has the target of fifteen hundred wafers per day in sight.

ASML hopes to have achieved that goal by the end of this year, with a sustained output. The outlier of 1488 wafers was achieved on a test system for euv lithography at ASML itself. EUV systems are already available at partners such as Intel and TSMC. Twelve hundred wafers per day were obtained from one of the partners, ASML announced during the Semicon West conference in San Francisco, according to the FD.

Eighteen months ago, ASML reached a peak of 1022 wafers within 24 hours, the goal for 2015 was to be able to continuously expose a thousand wafers daily. Being able to structurally illuminate large quantities of wafers via euv is crucial to be able to use the technology cost-effectively in production.

Another factor that is important here is the time that the euv machines actually function for a long time in succession. In San Francisco, ASML said the machines at five customers are doing their job properly 80 percent of the time, with peaks of up to 89 percent. The company is not yet satisfied with this.

The euuv lithography technique uses extreme ultraviolet light, which due to its shorter wavelength can produce smaller structures in chip production than with immersion lithography. Currently, chip manufacturers still use ASML machines based on immersion lithography, but with that technology they will soon no longer be able to switch to smaller processes. Switching to smaller processes forms the basis for being able to make more economical and faster chips. Euv has been mentioned for years as a promised method to enable smaller nodes, but ASML had great difficulty making the technology suitable for mass production.

Demo tool of euv machine at ASML from 2010