Nikon Renews Patent Battle with ASML: final capitulation by Nikon in lithography?

[user nl]

It appears that Nikon is renewing its 2002 battle with ASML on patents:

Nikon Initiates Global Legal Actions Against ASML and Carl Zeiss to Protect Patented Semiconductor Lithography Technology:
Nikon | News | Nikon Initiates Global Legal Actions Against ASML and Carl Zeiss to Protect Patented Semiconductor Lithography Technology

ASML Expresses Disappointment That Nikon Has Opted for Unnecessary and Unfounded Legal Action Over Patents:
ASML: Press - Press ReleasesASML Expresses Disappointment That Nikon Has Opted for Unnecessary and Unfounded Legal Action Over Patents - Press ReleasesASML Expresses Disappointment That Nikon Has Opted for Unnecessary and Unfounded Legal Action Over Patents


In 2002 Nikon lost market share to ASML in a big way: ASML jumped up from ~28% (2001) to ~50% (2002) and Nikon went down from around 40% (2001) to some 28% in 2002:
ASML surpasses Nikon in '02 litho market | EE Times

ASML surpassed Canon and Nikon in the lithography market in 2002. ASML's market share jumped from 28.8 percent in 2001, to 54.3 percent in 2002, according to the San Jose-based research firm. Its sales in the sector went from $1.09 billion in 2001, to $1.53 billion in 2002."ASML has done well," said Steven Pelayo, an analyst with Morgan Stanley in San Francisco. "Furthermore, ASML continues to gain new customers with wins at Intel, IBM, Texas Instruments, etc."
In contrast, Nikon's share fell from 39.4 percent in 2001, to 27.5 percent in 2002, according to Dataquest. Revenue fell from $1.49 billion in 2001, to $773.3 million, the report said.



It seems that with the recently (Nov 2016) announced restructuring of Nikon'`s immersion litho business:
Semiconductor Engineering .:. The Week In Review: Manufacturing
the 100% monopoly of ASML in EUV and >90% market share in immersion, income from patent wars with ASML will become the only source of (leading edge) litho income for Nikon the coming decade...

The announcement yesterday by Nikon of the patent suits filed seem to me to signal the final public capitulation by Nikon in the leading edge lithography business....I think most litho customers work already for quite some years in that environment of a slowly fading away of Nikon as a leading edge litho supplier...

The Open Innovation model seems to be the winning strategy as more industries are discovering in our global village:
https://www.researchgate.net/profil...aborations/links/0a85e533bc9b09aff6000000.pdf

Too bad that the lawsuits filed by Nikon puts money into the hands of lawyers instead of semi R&D people....

User nl

 

[Daniel Nenni]

I wonder what happened here. How did everyone else miss EUV? If there was competition we would probably have it in production by now. Maybe we will go back to the times where semiconductor manufacturers make their own equipment?

 

[user nl]

DAN,

Perhaps at some point a book will be written on the EUV story. There is already a special issue printed in Dec 2016 by the Dutch Tech site Bits&Chips on the EUV developments. I have a hardcopy of that issue (it is in English!) and it is certainly very informative, perhaps somewhat biased and giving a bit more of the Dutch and European perspective. Scroll down at the link here:
Shop - Bits&Chips

I think there is already quite some scientific literature on Open Innovation in R&D that discusses the way ASML has operated during the last 10-15 years with their suppliers, eventually leading to 'the winner takes all' position it has now obtained in lithography. But it comes with a duty, ASML has to keep all (!) customers happy, even if those customers are fierce competitors among each other.

I do not think in case of EUV any fierce competition would have helped much, this EUV technology is so complex that you really need collaboration between the key supply industries and research centres all over the world. Zeiss is just top-of-the line and now with Trumpf building the CO2 laser for the EUV source, another German giant (a family owned company) has joined the supply line of ASML.

Eventually ASML is extremely good at systems integration of these very complex litho tools, and it seems that customers appreciate these tools and the support ASML provides.

We have to wait for some good science/industry journalists/writers to write a more comprehensive history on the development of EUV...

User nl

 

[Daniel Nenni]

Interesting. I think history will show the EUV is one of the great semiconductor manufacturing failures of all time. Billions of dollars have been spent over the last ten years and we still do not have a production worthy system. Remember when Intel, Samsung, and TSMC all gave ASML hundreds of millions of dollars in a "Co-Investment Program"?

"We welcome TSMC to our Customer Co-Investment Program. The objective of the Co-Investment program is to secure and accelerate key lithography technologies. These technologies will benefit the entire industry and are not restricted to our Co-Investment partners," said Eric Meurice, Chief Executive Officer of ASML.

That was five years ago! So how much did all this money actually accelerate EUV?

 

[user nl]

Interesting. .................Remember when Intel, Samsung, and TSMC all gave ASML hundreds of millions of dollars in a "Co-Investment Program"?

.....................................So how much did all this money actually accelerate EUV?

DAN, I have been following your Semiwiki site since two years or so, and I have noticed that some people are somehow quite angry at ASML and blame them for all the failures, false expectations and slow progress regarding EUV during the last 10 years. There seem to be quite some emotions within people regarding EUV, and ASML?

Regarding the money invested by INTEL, Samsung and TSMC, indeed 1.38 BEuro over 5 years:
ASML: Investors - Customer Co-Investment Program

and somehow in this 5th and final year of the co-investment program the first HVM EUV tools (the NXE3400) are shipping, while some of the earlier models 3300, 3350 delivered in previous years will be upgraded to 3400 specs the coming years.

Furthermore, the share price that these 3 top customers paid in 2012, Euro39.91, has in those 5 years tripled to above Euro120, so some of these 3 customers have at least doubled or perhaps tripled their investment during the last 4-5 years. Other investors in ASML have paid for the EUV co-investment contribution of Intel, Samsung and TSMC and perhaps quite a bit more than that.

Let's reflect in 10 years or so about the usefulness of EUV for the semi industry, give the people some time to figure this out in HVM...

User nl

 

[Staf_Verhaegen]

Let's reflect in 10 years or so about the usefulness of EUV for the semi industry, give the people some time to figure this out in HVM...

Agreed. I would claim a litho machine is the most technical complex production machine on earth only equalled in complexity by single-use scientific machines like the LHC@CERN. When I bump into some old litho colleagues here at imec they are more positive about EUV than some months ago. They now see that these machines can actually do things with longer up-times. Sure, there are still several engineering problems to be solved which may be in hindsight be actual showstoppers.
Also the current EUV machines are tested by litho experts in places like imec by the litho experts from Intel/TSMC/Sansung/... and people thinking that these companies continue supporting the development of them because of some cleaned ASML papers at SPIE & co. are mistaken. You may be able to fool one engineer but not a bunch of them.

 

[user nl]

ASML pushes back......

ASML Files Patent Infringement Lawsuits Against Nikon - ASML Forced to Go to Court After Nikon Fails to Seriously Negotiate

VELDHOVEN, the Netherlands, 28 April 2017 – ASML today announced that it is filing initial legal claims against Nikon for infringement of more than 10 patents, related to a broad range of products in the fields of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, flat panel display manufacturing equipment and digital cameras. This follows Nikon’s announcement on April 24, 2017, that it has sued ASML. ASML categorically denies infringing any of Nikon’s patents.
ASML has today filed suits in Japan, both on its own and jointly with its strategic partner ZEISS. Additional suits will be brought in the United States.
Peter Wennink, ASML President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “We have no choice but to file these countersuits. We have tried for many years to come to a cross-license agreement that reflects the increased strength of our patent portfolio. Unfortunately, Nikon has never seriously participated in negotiations. Now that Nikon has decided to take this dispute to court, we also have to enforce our patent portfolio, and we will do this as broadly as possible.”

ASML: Press - Press ReleasesASML Files Patent Infringement Lawsuits Against Nikon - ASML Forced to Go to Court After Nikon Fails to Seriously Negotiate - Press ReleasesASML Files Patent Infringement Lawsuits Against Nikon - ASML Forced to Go to Court After Nikon Fails to Seriously Negotiate