In the recent DRAM jargon, “1X”, “1Y”, “1Z”, etc. have been used to express all the sub-20 nm process generations. It is almost possible now to match them to real numbers which are roughly the half-pitch of the DRAM active area, such as 1X=18, 1Y ~ 17, etc. At this rate, 14 nm is somewhere around
Results were in line after correcting Covid Caused Revenue Rec issue-
ASML reported revenues of Euro3.3B and EPS of Euro1.79 as revenues from two EUV systems was not recognized, due to … Read More
An update is now available here: Application-Specific Lithography: Patterning 5nm 5.5-Track Metal by DUV
The 5nm foundry (e.g., TSMC) node may see the introduction of 6-track cells (two double-width rails plus four minimum-width dense lines) with a minimum metal pitch in the neighborhood of 30 nm. IMEC had studied a representative… Read More
The stochastic nature of imaging has received a great deal of attention in the area of EUV lithography. The density of EUV photons reaching the wafer is low enough [1] that the natural variation in the number of photons arriving at a given location can give rise to a relatively large standard deviation.
In recent studies [2,3], it … Read More
EUV (Extreme UltraViolet) lithography has received attention within the semiconductor industry since its development inception in 1997 with the formation of the EUV LLC [1], and more recently, since the 7nm node began, with limited use by Samsung and TSMC being touted as key advantages [2, 3]. As with any key critical technology,
Economic damage-
China relationship damage will far outlast direct Covid19 logistics impact-
Economic damage could be huge but trade damage could be larger with more specific impact on chips-
A long build up to a China trade nuclear winter, the “drum-beat of war”
When we started talking about a potential chip trade… Read More
Covid issues create “lumpy” quarters due to delays
Orders & demand remain solid and strong
2020 Year financials intact so far but ignore Qtrs
Taking prudent actions- no buybacks or guidance
As expected, Covid impacts both shipments & supply chain, ignore the near term lumpiness…
ASML reported revenues… Read More
I couldn’t attend the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference this year for personal reasons, but last week Mike Lercel of ASML was nice enough to walk me through the major ASML presentations from the conference.
Introduction
In late 2018, Samsung and TSMC introduced 7nm foundry logic processes with 5 to 7 EUV layers, throughout … Read More
State-of-the-art chips will always include some portions which are memory arrays, which also happen to be the densest portions of the chip. Arrayed features are the main targets for lithography evaluation, as the feature pitch is well-defined, and is directly linked to the cost scaling (more features per wafer) from generation… Read More
Our friends at Threshold Systems have a new ONLINE class that may be of interest to you. It’s an updated version of the Advanced CMOS Technology class held last February. This is normally a classroom affair but to accommodate the recent COVID-19 travel restrictions it is being offered virtually.
As part of the previous class we did… Read More
