Intel Corporation, the world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, has placed its first order with Dutch multinational corporation ASML Holding NV, for a newer, more advanced TWINSCAN EXE:5200 chip-making system at a cost of well over $340 million, even as semiconductor manufacturers look ahead to a booming industry.
Along with better-than-expected Q4 earnings, ASML said that it has received orders for five of its next-generation lithography machines, as well as an order for a newer model still under design.
The most advanced ASML machines in current commercial production, known as EUV lithography systems because of extreme ultraviolet light waves they use to map computer chip circuits, are as large as a bus, and cost about $150 million each.
A high-end chip factory needs nine to 18 of these machines, which is one of the biggest capital costs for chipmakers.
ASML is the only manufacturer of such machines that provides the world’s leading chipmakers – Taiwan’s TSMC, USA’s Intel, and South Korea’s Samsung – lithography solutions by using light to print tiny patterns on silicon, a fundamental step in mass producing microchips.
Veldhoven-based ASML said that it has received orders for five High-NA EUV machines, the system’s next iteration, which will have a different optical system with a higher digital aperture.
ASML’s Executive Vice President and CFO Roger Dassen said at a press conference that the machines will be shipped to customers for testing in 2023, after the earnings.
Intel, which is trying to reclaim its position as a maker of the smallest and fastest chips from current leader TSMC, previously identified itself as the first buyer of ASML’s TWINSCAN EXE:5000.
The American multinational corporation, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, said that it would also buy its first TWINSCAN EXE:5200, the first model intended for use in commercial production, which it may receive by the end of 2024. This move by Intel marks the next step on the path to EUV 0.55 NA (High-NA) introduction.
Intel’s purchase order to ASML of the EUV high-volume production system is part of the two companies’ long-term High-NA collaboration framework, and proof of Intel’s relentless pursuit of Moore’s Law.
