After High-NA comes Hyper-NA: ASML and Zeiss sketch chipmaking tools for the 2030s
Engineers from ASML and Carl Zeiss describe a successor to today's most advanced chip lithography systems. It could be ready around 2036 – but production has not yet been decided.
Archive image · Photo: A ansems / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
Dutch equipment maker ASML and its optics partner Carl Zeiss are already thinking about the generation after next in chip lithography. In a technical article published on 8 October, engineers from both companies describe a platform called Hyper-NA. It is meant to succeed today's High-NA EUV systems and print features more than a third smaller than current machines can. The smaller the features, the more transistors fit on a chip.
It is still a long road, however: according to a report by financial portal TradingKey, the platform could be ready around 2036, but no decision on production has yet been taken. In the short term Hyper-NA is therefore not a significant growth driver, the report says, though in the long run the technology could further secure ASML's lead. The previous generation is already in use: Intel uses High-NA EUV systems for selected layers of its 18A manufacturing process. According to ASML and Intel, more than one million silicon wafers have been processed with the technology across testing, development and production.