ASML EUV Power Increase to Boost Chip Production by 2030
Chip-making equipment giant ASML has reportedly increased the power of its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines by 67%, to 1,000 watts. This breakthrough, noted in the Tech Brew podcast, is projected to enable a 50% gain in chip production by 2030. The advancement is critical for maintaining Moore's Law and will directly influence the roadmap for future generations of high-performance silicon, including Apple's A- and M-series chips.
- The power increase from 600W in current machines to 1,000W is achieved by doubling the frequency of molten tin droplets to 100,000 per second and using a new multi-pulse laser system to create the plasma that emits EUV light. - This advancement is projected to increase wafer throughput from roughly 220 wafers per hour on current systems to 330 wafers per hour, directly lowering the production cost per chip. - Key ASML personnel involved include Michael Purvis, lead technologist for the EUV source, who stated there is a "reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts." - The critical and highly complex optical systems that collect and focus the EUV light are manufactured exclusively by German partner Carl Zeiss AG, in which ASML holds a 24.9% stake to jointly fund R&D. - This power upgrade is distinct from the development of next-generation High-NA (Numerical Aperture) EUV systems, which increase the NA of the optics from 0.33 to 0.55 to enable even finer resolutions for future chip nodes. - The first commercial High-NA machine, the Twinscan EXE:5000, was shipped to Intel, with each unit costing over $350 million. - The 1,000W source technology is expected to be integrated into the Twinscan NXE:4000-series scanners later this decade. - The extreme energy consumption of a single EUV tool, which can be up to 1.4 megawatts for High-NA systems, presents a significant power infrastructure and sustainability challenge for fabrication plants.
