EUV is ready for mass production of 7 nm and 5 nm semiconductor chips

Finally the wait for mass production capable EUV is over with the successful demo of 250W exposure-power EUV lithography equipment from the only vendor ASM Lithography. Though ASM has already supplied good number of EUV lithography equipment to leading semiconductor fabs but they are of lesser power rating. With the announcement of 250 W capable EUV to process 125 wafers per hour, ASM is preparing to supply them to leading semiconductor fabs with volume production scheduled to happen in 2019. Although many leading semiconductor fabs including TSMC and Samsung are still using Deep Ultra Violet (DUV) for 7 nm chip production, but some of the fabs are ready to migrate to EUV with mixed use of both the DUV and EUV for 7nm and sole EUV for 5 nm. In sync with this trend, ASM launched TWINSCAN NXE:3400B EUV lithography system and the new TWINSCAN NXT:2000i DUV immersion system supporting methods such as redesigned leveling and alignment sensors. This enables DUV/EUV cross-matching on-product overlay of 2.5 nm that addresses a mix-and-match production environment for the most advanced nodes. ASM said in it release "TWINSCAN NXE:3400B and YieldStar 375F metrology tool are currently shipping to logic and memory customers worldwide. The HMI eP5 is expected to ship in the second half of this year. The TWINSCAN NXT:2000i has an ongoing early access program that includes key hardw...