Will Intel have enough EUV for 7nm?

[Andy1299]

It may take 10+years even if it works.

Agreed. EUV is not just ASML it is many highly specialized firms doing crazy things Zeiss for example makes lenses to sub atom accuracy... Mechanical placement machines in the nm range. The whole set up of EUV is crazy with droplets of tin and lasers so powerful that at one point they considered building free electron lasers (or linear accelerators) under fabs that happen to generate radiation. This is also why China will never catch up. It takes a world's worth of semi demand to make sub 7nm happen and China, for once, just isn't big enough...

 

[DaRAGingLunatic]

I wish i could get an update on the amount of wafers, and tech levels and estimated capacity per corporation again here in 2023, like we had 2 years ago.

 

[Tanj]

At IEDM last December Intel said EUV did not arrive in time for 10nm so they had to reengineer it for DUV. That was the excuse why 10nm was late. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. I actually had to wait for the replay to listen again.

Well it makes some sense when you consider that Intel was trying to launch 10nm many years ago, and indeed no-one used EUV. But it does not explain why Intel failed 10nm but TSMC succeeded in 7nm, both with DUV.

There was something specific that Intel screwed up on 10nm and then was so discombobulated about how to fix it that it caused them to keep deferring new EUV. A sorry story. Maybe the problem was unrelated to litho, so would still have been a problem with EUV. That would fit with the persistent rumors about betting the farm on cobalt.