ASML delivers first NXE:3600D-euv system and aims to deliver 60 systems by 2023
ASML has delivered the first Twinscan NXE:3600D to a customer. This is ASML’s latest euv system, with higher wafer productivity. In 2023, the Veldhoven company wants to scale up to be able to produce and supply sixty of these systems.
In an explanatory video, ASML CEO Peter Wennink says that the capacity for next year is still at 55 of these systems. Before 2023, the company is looking to expand that capacity to 60 systems. This NXE:3600D achieves a wafer capacity that is 15 to 20 percent higher than that of the existing NXE:3400C.
Capacity expansion is not limited to extreme ultraviolet lithography. ASML also has plans to significantly expand capacity for deep ultraviolet lithography or duv. Wennink does not mention exact numbers yet, but does say that it will be numbers with double digits. Expectations of increased duv capacity also depend on what the supply chain can do in terms of shortening cycles and the ability to realize more manpower, machinery and factory space.
ASML has had a good second quarter, according to Wennink. The company received orders for chip machines in the second quarter with a significant total value of 8.3 billion euros. It had never been this high before; in the first quarter of this year, that amount amounted to 4.7 billion euros. The largest part of that 8.3 billion euros is formed by orders for euv machines: 4.9 billion euros. With the current 8.3 billion euros added, ASML now has a total of 17.5 billion euros in orders on its books.
In the past second quarter, turnover amounted to 4 billion euros. That was even higher in the first quarter of this year: 4.4 billion euros. Wennink explains this relatively low current turnover figure by pointing to a number of chip machines that were delivered in the second quarter without a factory acceptance test. These tests check whether a produced machine meets the specifications and ASML solves any problems, so that the machine can be immediately put into use once on site at the customer. This step has often been skipped lately to save time, but that also means that the sale of these systems will only contribute to turnover in the third quarter of this year. The profit came in at one billion euros. That is also somewhat lower than the 1.3 billion euros from the first quarter of this year.