ASML this week reaffirmed that it is on track to release a Twinscan NXE extreme ultraviolet lithography system that features a 1000W EUV power source and can process up to 330 wafers per hour. The system, projected for sometime in 2030 or beyond, offers 50% more power than the current best EUV tool, the NXE:3800E. Such machines will greatly increase productivity and decrease costs per wafer for chipmakers, but to make them possible, ASML has had to achieve several breakthroughs.
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"What was achieved — one kilowatt — is pretty amazing," Michael Purvis, ASML's lead technologist for its EUV source light, told Reuters. "We see a reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts, and no fundamental reason why we couldn't get to 2,000 watts."
However, to get to a 1000W-class EUV source in the 2030s, ASML must develop a new three-pulse EUV light generation method that it disclosed in late 2024. The new method involves a 1μm pre-pulse that flattens the droplets, followed by a 1μm rarefaction pre-pulse that rarefies them, after which the main 10μm CO2 laser pulse turns them into EUV plasma. Previously, ASML filed a patent application for an EUV light source producing three laser pulses, according to Asianometry. For now, this three-pulse source is not a part of any shipping machine, though expect it to end up in a Twinscan NXE:4000-series scanners due later this decade.
Yet, the actual 1000W EUV radiation source will also be equipped with a new tin droplet that will almost double the number of tin droplets to 100,000 every second. This unit is also currently under development, and it will take years before it is commercialized, according to an ASML spokesperson speaking with Tom's Hardware.
Building a new laser system that comprises of a CO2 laser with a 10μm wavelength for the main pulse and two non-CO2 lasers for with ~1μm wavelength for pre-pulses and a new tin droplet generator that doubles performance as well as a new tin droplet generator with twofold performance sounds easy on paper, both these devices as well as devices that accompany them to make their work possible represent numerous major technological breakthroughs.
Increasing the number of tin droplets automatically means increasing the amount of debris that can end up on a wafer (or rather a pellicle), so they must be promptly removed, which means an all-new debris collector. While producing 1000W of EUV radiation is hard, transferring it onto a wafer is even harder, so ASML had to invent all-new high transmission projection optics, which are meant to scale all the way to over 450 wafers per hour, or toward something like 1500W. Also, increased productivity and higher performance light sources require new wafer and reticle stages, which will also be upgraded in systems featuring a 1000W light source. Last but not least, a 1000W EUV light source also calls for new resists and pellicles, so in addition to ASML itself, the whole industry needs to prep for the arrival of the company's tools featuring its latest innovations.
ASML has long planned to increase the productivity of its EUV lithography scanners to 330 wafers per hour by around 2030, a productivity level tied to a 1000W light source. Therefore, the announcement made this week outlines the technology the company invented to achieve that roadmap goal.
ASML is yet to integrate its 1000W EUV light source into its Low-NA EUV and High-NA EUV roadmaps. The company's next-generation Low-NA Twinscan NXE:4000F litho system with a production capacity of over 250 WpH and a matched machine overlay (MMO) performance of 0.8 nm for 1.x-nm-class nodes is due in 2027, followed by the NXE:4200G with productivity of over 280 WpH in 2029. On the High-NA EUV front, ASML preps the Twinscan EXE:5200C with an over 185 WpH output and a <0.9nm MMO performance next year, followed by the EXE:5400D with productivity of over 195 wafers per hour in 2029.
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