ASML invests heavily in cleanrooms for ‘euv high NA’ chip machines

ASML is investing one billion euros in four construction sites at its headquarters in Veldhoven. There, the company is working on larger cleanrooms for its next generation of chip machines, which work on the basis of ‘euv high NA’.

The new cleanrooms will be built on the ASML headquarters complex and will be larger than the existing cleanrooms on site, as the high-NA machines for euv will also be significantly larger than the current euv machines. High NA stands for the next generation of EUV systems that ASML is working on. Those systems offer an NA of 0.5, where the current EUV systems have an NA of 0.33. NA stands for numerical aperture or the opening angle of the lens. The larger this value, the smaller the structures that can be projected onto the wafers.

ASML is also investing in new buildings for the logistics associated with the arrival of the larger systems. The company aims to deliver the first high-NA systems in 2022, after which production should increase. Also part of the expansion project is the construction of a parking garage for three thousand vehicles, a conference center, a warehouse and four buildings at De Run 1000, the place where ASML established itself in 1985. That writes the Eindhovens Dagblad.

Last year ASML invested 900 million euros and this year the amount will also come to that. Both next year and in 2022, investments will amount to one billion euros.