You may still be struggling with the battery of your phone not being durable, the game is stuck, and the smart home is not smart enough, but you know what? The root of these problems lies in the performance of the chip. Chips are the core of modern technology, which determines the computing speed, storage capacity and energy consumption of electronic devices. The performance of the chip depends on its manufacturing process, which is to carve more and more fine lines on the semiconductor material to accommodate more transistors.
However, with the continuous advancement of chip manufacturing processes, traditional lithography technology has encountered a bottleneck. Lithography is the use of a light source to shine on the reticle, through the pattern on the reticle to project the light onto the semiconductor material, so as to form lines on its surface. However, the wavelength of light limits the minimum width of the line, and traditional lithography uses deep ultraviolet light, which has a wavelength of 193 nanometers, which is no longer sufficient for chip manufacturing below 7 nanometers.
In order to break through this problem, global chip manufacturing giant ASML recently demonstrated its most advanced chip manufacturing equipment - High-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine. This one is worth 3500 million euros (approx. 2.7 billion.)200 million yuan), weighing the size of two Airbus A320 airliners, was declared by ASML as a "must-have" for chipmakers to participate in the AI boom.
EUV lithography is an original invention of ASML and uses extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of only 13At 5 nanometers, 14 times smaller than deep ultraviolet light, it is capable of etching lines only 8 nanometers wide on semiconductors, which is 1 1 of the previous generation7。Thinner lines mean that the chip can accommodate more transistors, allowing for faster processing speeds and higher memory capacity, which is critical for AI workloads.
EUV lithography technology has been adopted by the world's leading chip manufacturers such as Intel, Samsung, TSMC, and others to produce advanced chips at 7nm, 5nm, and even 3nm. These chips will provide powerful performance for electronic devices such as smartphones, game consoles, and smart watches, while also bringing new possibilities to smart cars, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and more.
Peter Wennink, CEO of ASML, said in an interview last month: "AI requires a lot of computing power and data storage. I don't think this would have been possible without ASML, without our technology. This will be a big driver for our business. ”
It is reported that ASML has received orders from several chip manufacturers, and the first High-NA EUV lithography machine arrived at Intel's D1X factory in Oregon at the end of last year, and Intel plans to start production with the system by the end of 2025. Monique Mols, a spokesperson for ASML, said during a tour of the company's headquarters in Ferhofen, the Netherlands, that the installation of the 150,000-kilogram system took six months, 250 containers and 250 engineers.
The emergence of EUV lithography technology is undoubtedly a revolution in the field of chip manufacturing and a revolution in the field of artificial intelligence. It will bring us more intelligent, efficient and energy-saving technology products to make our lives better.