Amsl process 4.5 million euv wafers in 2018

ASML revealed at the IEDM 2019 conference that a total of 4.5 million wafers have been processed using EUV tools through 2018. The company's latest NXE: 3400C systems achieve throughput of 170 wafers per hour.

4.5 million wafers have been processed using EUV tools through 2018, according to ASML

Of the 4.5 million wafers that had cumulatively passed through the ASML EUV tools from 2011 to the end of 2018, the majority (2.5 million) were produced in 2018 alone, doubling each year from 0.6 million in the early 2016. For comparison, TSMC manufactures approximately 12 million wafers per year, although it should be noted that one wafer potentially suffers a dozen lithographic exposures during manufacturing.

The number of wafers processed by EUV has likely increased further in 2019 as both Samsung and TSMC have started producing their 7nm and N7 + processes. EUV-based chips include the Samsung Exynos 9825, Kirin 990 5G, and next year, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 5G chipsets and AMD's Zen 3. Intel will adopt EUV in 2021 with the 7nm.

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The installed base of NXE: 3400B systems reached 38 as of the second quarter of 2018, almost quadrupling the amount of 2017. This shows that EUV adoption is growing and that customers trust the technology: ASML received 23 requests for EUV in Q3 2019 (and stated it would deliver ~ 35 systems in 2020), including multiple systems for DRAM. All of those orders were for the new NXE: 3400C system that also started shipping in the third quarter.

The ASML EUV process has been delayed due to cost, but now that stage is behind us and the EUV process is fully viable for mass chip wafer manufacturing. The latest ASML device, NXE: 3400C, reaches 170 wafers per hour.

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