Lithography Leader ASML Hyper-NA is Next Step in Smaller Transistors. 2.9X Density.

High NA EUV is the next step in smaller transistors. Like NXE systems, it uses EUV light to print tiny features on silicon wafers. And by turning the NA knob, we deliver even better resolution: The new platform, known as EXE, offers chipmakers a CD (critical dimension) of 8 nm. That means they can print …

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Intel’s Technology Roadmap

Intel’s updated technology roadmap from 2021 to 2025 and beyond was released. Intel goes to a sub-7 nanometer process in mid-2022. This is when Intel finally gets to EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet). Intel used to be ahead in technology but they are now trying to catch up to TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor), AMD and Nvidia. In 2022, …

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TSMC 7+ Nanometer Chips Are in High Volume Production With 5, 6 nm in 2020

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor) announced that its seven-nanometer plus (N7+), the industry’s first commercially available Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology, is delivering customer products to market in high volume. The N7+ process with EUV technology is built on TSMC’s successful 7nm node and paves the way for 6nm and more advanced technologies. The leading edge is …

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Very tough to squeeze the last bit of performance at 5 nanometers and smaller

Engineers see many options to create 5-, 3- and even 2-nanometer semiconductor process technologies but they will have trouble getting performance improvements as things are made smaller. They are looking at trying to getting the last 10-40% of improvements in power usage and performance. Need to change to different transistor architectures Versions of today’s FinFET …

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TSMC 7 nanometer fab ramping in 2018, 5 nm in 2019, 3 nm Fab in 2021-2022

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will build the world’s first 3-nm fab in the Tainan Science Park in southern Taiwan, where the company does the bulk of its manufacturing. About a year ago, TSMC said it planned to build its next fab at the 5-nm to 3-nm technology node as early as 2022. The more …

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ASML enabling Moore’s law scaling and cost reduction out to 1 to 2 nanometers in mid-2020s

Today ASML is selling billions in Extreme Ultraviolet lithography machines. These machines will help deliver chips at the 5 nanometer to 2 nanometer nodes. ASML (Veldhoven, the Netherlands) sold eight more EUV (next-generation extreme ultraviolet lithography) systems in the second quarter. This brings its EUV backlog to 27 tools valued at about 2.8 billion euro …

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IBM Builds New Transistor for 5nm Technology

IBM and its Research Alliance partners GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung, and equipment suppliers have developed an industry-first process to build silicon nanosheet transistors that will enable 5 nanometer (nm) chips. The details of the process will be presented at the 2017 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits conference in Kyoto, Japan. In less than two years …

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EUV Lithography tools shipping in 2018

ASML expects to ship 20 to 24 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools next year as the industry continues edging closer to production deployment of the oft-delayed next-generation lithography technology. Peter Wennink, ASML’s president and CEO, told analysts following the company’s first quarter financial report Wednesday that the company continues to make progress toward its goals …

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