On May 20, the Dutch company ASML manufactured a new generation of lithography machines and appeared on Weibo hot search. ACCORDING TOML is currently manufacturing new extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, each expected to sell for about $400 million, or about 2.7 billion yuan, or will be completed in the first half of 2023 and is expected to be used in chip suppliers in 2025.
It is reported that the lithography machine weighs more than 200 tons, the size of a "double-decker bus", and aims to produce the microscopic circuits needed for computer chips that can be used in mobile phones, laptops, cars and artificial intelligence.
Executives at ASML, based in the southern Dutch town of Veldhoven near the Belgian border, told foreign media that the company and its longtime partner, a nonprofit research institute called IMEC, are setting up a test lab. This also means that in the future, the world's top chip manufacturers and suppliers can try out the performance of the lithography machine to decide whether to buy it.
The wavelength of light used by ASML's most advanced machines refers to the frequency band in the electromagnetic spectrum where electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from 121 nanometers to 10 nanometers is located. ASML CEO Peter Wennink told the media that in the past 10 years, the company has sold about 140 EUV lithography machines for about $200 million a unit.
The development of this time is an EUV using "High-NA". For ASML, only by achieving this R&D goal will it not lose its competitiveness and orders.
The "fate" of the project is also important for ASML's customers as chipmakers race to expand production amid a shortage of resources worldwide. For example, Intel, Samsung, TSMC, etc., of which TSMC is producing chips for companies such as Apple, AMD and Nvidia.
ASML's machines cost as much as $160 million each, but machine shortages are a bottleneck chipmakers are facing. As a result, chipmakers plan to spend more than $100 billion over the next few years to build additional manufacturing plants to meet customer demand.
Previously, TSMC first integrated ASML's EUV machines in the late 2010s to surpass its competitors in one fell swoop. Because of this, TSMC's competitors have said that they will not "make mistakes" on "High-NA".
In the process of shrinking the chip, the EUV lithography machine plays an important role. "High-NA" technology is expected to reduce circuit area by 66%. In chip manufacturing, the smaller the better. Because the more transistors are packaged in the same space, the faster and more energy-efficient the chip.
At present, the chip circuit is approaching the atomic level, which also makes people think whether "Moore's Law" is nearing the end. First proposed in the 1960s, Moore's Law refers to the fact that the number of transistors on a chip doubles approximately every two years.
Machines with "High-NA" will be about 30 percent larger than previous machines, and IMEC said it believes working with ASML to build the lab could save chipmakers up to a year of development time.
ASML said it has an order for 5 test machines, which will be delivered in 2024. In addition, there are orders from 5 different customers, so starting in 2025, ASML will accelerate the delivery of production models.
But there are still huge challenges with ASML in the integration of complex components, including polished, ultra-smooth curved mirror optical systems manufactured in vacuum by Carl Zeiss in Germany.
Looking back, since 2000, ASML has rapidly captured market share from Japanese rivals Nikon and Canon. Since then, ASML has controlled more than 90% of the lithography market. So much so that no competitor dares to build a similar EUV system at a high development cost. The company has grown so well over the past decade that its share price has soared 1,000% today at $214.522 billion, and it has also received the majority of global orders for lithography systems.
While ASML enjoys a near-monopoly position in the industry, "pricing depends on machine productivity." At the same time, the number of companies capable of producing leading chips is decreasing, and ASML must sell EUV tools to them, including memory chip makers SK Hynix and Micron.
Some researchers expect ASML's annual sales to double over the next decade and are expected to exceed $1 trillion. However, one reality that must be faced is that ASML still faces some pressure in the supply chain of "High-NA" technology. Chris Miller, an assistant professor at the Fletcher College of Tufts University in the United States, told foreign media that although ASML is a Dutch company, it is still heavily dependent on American suppliers for parts of lithography machines.
Moreover, because investors expect ASML to gain further dominance and performance growth to justify its 35x 2021 price-to-earnings valuation, the company has little room to make mistakes even if it encounters technical obstacles or supply chain hurdles.
WeChat search and follow the public account: iVacuum vacuum focus, get more cutting-edge information on vacuum technology. iVacuum Vacuum Focus, sponsored by Vacuum Magazine, is committed to reporting the latest scientific and technological progress, successful experiences and cases in the fields of vacuum acquisition and application at home and abroad. Industry exchanges/reports are welcome.