Chip manufacturers have eighteen euv machines on order from ASML
ASML has received six orders for EUV chip production machines in the last quarter of 2016. This brings the total in the past year to eighteen machines. ASML speaks of a milestone in its EUV targets.
When announcing the annual figures, ASML reports that it has achieved the target of 1500 wafers exposed with EuV per day. This happened at a customer with an NXE:3350B machine, where the 1500wpd was an average over three days. In addition, two NXE:3300B machines worked properly 90 percent of the time for a month on average.
According to ASML, those results have created sufficient confidence among customers to order euv machines on a large scale. Although the results do not yet meet the requirements for mass production, ASML will no longer provide figures on how the euv machines are performing from now on. According to CEO Peter Wennink, those performance figures were intended to inspire confidence and that goal has been achieved. He therefore speaks of a milestone.
The ASML CEO claims that after the long process of making euv suitable for mass production, the relatively short final steps can now be taken. According to him, mass production should start at the end of 2018, early 2019 and all chip manufacturers would have stated that upcoming chip generations will be produced on euv machines.
ASML’s goal was to deliver six or seven euv machines by 2016. In the end there were only four. A customer wanted an upgrade of his ordered machine to a new generation, which means that it will only be delivered in 2018. Another machine that was supposed to be delivered in 2016 is yet to be released in 2017. ASML says it will be able to produce and supply twelve euv machines in 2017. In 2018, the capacity is expected to grow to twenty-four machines.
In addition to the EUV orders, ASML has also received orders for thirty-eight lithography machines based on current immersion technology, for a total of 1.2 billion euros. In total there is a value of almost 4 billion euros on order, half of which is for the account of euv.
The EUV 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 it will soon no longer be profitable to switch to smaller processes.
Quarterly sales at the end of 2016 amounted to 1.9 billion euros, compared to 1.4 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2015. Net profit in the quarter amounted to 524 million euros. That was 292 million euros a year earlier.