Lithography Evolves, ASML Explores Hyper-NA EUV: 2030 Advances to 0.7nm Process

IT Home reported on February 17 that reducing the size of transistors is essential to continuously improve chip performance, and the semiconductor industry has never stopped exploring ways to reduce the size of transistors.

In a September 2022 interview, ASML CTO Martin van den Brink said that after decades of innovative development in lithography, High-NA EUV may have come to an end of the technology.

After more than 1 year of exploration by ASML, there is a kind of breakthrough of "the ship is naturally straight from the bridge to the bridge, and the willows are bright and bright", and Brink proposed the concept of Hyper-NA EUV in the "2023 Annual Report", which is expected to come out in 2030.

In the report, Brink reads as follows:

Hyper-NA with an NA higher than 0.7 is undoubtedly a new opportunity and will be the new vision beyond 2030. Hyper-NA is closely related to logic circuitry, and the cost is lower than that of High-NA EUV double patterning, which also opens up new opportunities for DRAM.

For ASML, Hyper-NA can drive our overall EUV capability platform to improve costs and lead times.

Low-NA EUV

ASML's existing Low-NA EUV lithography tool has an aperture value (NA) of 0.33 and a lineweight/critical size (CD) of 13.5nm, producing a minimum metal pitch of 26nm and a T2T (tip-to-tip distance, distance between the ends of the cut wire) interconnect pitch at 25-30nm in a single exposure, which is sufficient to produce chips for the 4nm/5nm process.

While the 3nm process requires the T2T interconnect pitch to be shortened to 21-24nm, TSMC's N3B process technology uses Low-NA EUV lithography tools to minimize the pitch through double exposure, so the cost is greatly increased.

High-NA EUV

ASML's recently started deliveries to Intel of the High-NA EUV with an aperture value of 0.55 and a linewidth of 8nm that can theoretically print products with a minimum metal pitch of 8nm, which is very useful for 3nm processes and can even produce 1nm chips under double exposure.

ASML's High-NA Twinscan EXE lithography machines represent the pinnacle of the company's technology, weighing 150,000 kilograms each, equivalent to two Airbus A320 aircraft, and requiring 250 containers to be transported and assembled by a further six months by 250 engineers after reaching the customer.

Hyper-NA EUV

The metal spacing is very small after 1nm, so ASML needs more advanced tools, which leads to the concept of Hyper-NA EUV.

In an interview with Bits & Chips, Brink confirmed that the company is studying the feasibility of Hyper-NA technology, however, no final decision has been made yet.

ASML is investigating the development of Hyper NA technology and continues to advance lithography metrics, with NA values exceeding 0.7 and expected to be completed around 2030.

Not only is it expensive to increase the numerical aperture of projection optics, but it also requires redesigning lithography tools, which means that the size of the high-NA EUV may have to be increased and new components need to be developed, which will inevitably increase in cost.

According to the microelectronics research center (IMEC) roadmap, it should be possible to advance to the A7 0.7nm process around 2030, followed by A5 0.5nm, A3 0.3nm, and A2 0.2nm.

According to ASML, a Low-NA EUV Twinscan NXE machine starts at $183 million, with additional costs required if other configurations are required.

With a starting price of $380 million for a High-NA EUV Twinscan EXE tool, it is expected that the starting price of Hyper-NA will be even higher, and perhaps even doubled.