ASML launched the world's most advanced chip manufacturing artifact, and the High-NA EUV lithography machine made a shocking debut.
Maybe you're still worried about the battery not lasting enough, the game is stuck, and the smart home isn't smart enough, but have you ever thought about it? The root cause of the above problems is the performance of the chip itself. As the center of today's science and technology, the performance of integrated circuits directly affects the operating speed, storage capacity, and energy consumption of the entire system. The process of making a chip determines its quality, and it needs to engrave more lines on a transistor that can hold more.
However, in the process of integrated circuit fabrication, conventional lithography methods face a "bottleneck" in the development of development. Lithography refers to the projection of a beam of light onto a thin film, and then a beam of light is projected on a thin film by a pattern on a thin film, so that it produces a straight line on a thin film. However, the depth UV (193 nm) used for lithography is no longer suitable for process requirements of 7 nm and below.
To break this bottleneck, ASML, the world's semiconductor production giant, recently released its latest EUV lithography machine. This ship costs 3500 million euros (27200 million yuan), a giant aircraft weighing two Airbus A320 aircraft, is claimed by ASML to be a "must-have" for chip manufacturers in the AI wave.
ASML's self-developed EUV lithography has a working wavelength of only 135 nm, only 14 nm, etchable 8 nm, only 1One in seven. The thinner the wires, the more transistors can fit in, resulting in higher computing speeds and greater storage capacity, which is necessary for AI workloads.
The EUV lithography process is currently used by the world's major semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, Samsung, TSMC, etc., and is mainly used in high-end integrated circuits above 7 nm, 5 nm, and even 3 nm. This technology can not only provide strong performance support for various electrical products such as smartphones, game consoles, and smart watches, but also open up new possibilities for smart cars, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and many other fields.
In an interview last month, ASML CEO Pete Winnick said, "AI requires both powerful computing capabilities and data storage. I don't think it could have been done without ASML, without our technology. This is a big boost for our business. ”
According to reports, ASML has received orders from several manufacturers, among which the first high-NA extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment arrived at Intel's D1X plant in Oregon at the end of last year, and Intel is expected to put it into mass production by the end of 2025. Monique Morse, a spokeswoman for ASML, said at a news conference in Ferhofen, the Netherlands, that the equipment took more than six months to complete, with a total of 250 containers and 250 engineers to complete.
The advent of extreme ultraviolet lithography will be a huge change for the entire semiconductor industry and even the entire artificial intelligence industry. Bring more intelligent, efficient and energy-saving new technologies to human beings, and make human life better.