Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thank you, Mr. Air, a netizen of CTOnews.com, for your clue delivery! CTOnews.com, Oct. 23, according to etnews, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have ordered the next generation semiconductor device High-NA extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) exposure device from lithography giant ASML. After TSMC and Intel, South Korean semiconductor manufacturers are also preparing to introduce equipment that can implement 2nm processes. Competition for the most advanced processes is expected to intensify.

In the earnings announcement on October 19, ASML said: "in the EUV High-NA business, ASML has received additional orders from TWINSCAN EXE:5200; currently all EUV customers have submitted High-NA orders." The High-NA EUV device is a device that increases the lens numerical aperture (NA) of light collection capacity from 0.33 to 0.55. Handle more elaborate semiconductor circuits than existing EUV devices. Most people in the industry believe that High-NA equipment is very important to the 2nm process.

NA (NumericalAperture), which is called numerical aperture, is an important index of optical lens. General lithography equipment will clearly mark the value of this index. When the wavelength of the light source is constant, the size of the NA directly determines the actual resolution of the lithography machine, which also determines the highest process node that the lithography machine can achieve.

In September, ASML said it was preparing to deliver its first High-NA EUV lithography machine to customers, probably sometime next year.

Intel and TSMC have officially announced the introduction of High-NA EUV equipment. Intel announced last year that it was the first to place an order for High-NA EUV equipment when it announced the strategy of integrating semiconductor companies (IDM 2.0) with the goal of re-entering the contract manufacturing market. This is to catch up with the system semiconductor production capacity of TSMC and Samsung Electronics by introducing next-generation devices first. TSMC also announced a contract to order High-NA EUV equipment, but Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix did not mention anything about the contract. With the announcement of ASML, the practice of introducing High-NA equipment into South Korean semiconductor manufacturers has been formally confirmed. However, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix said that with regard to the introduction of High-NA EUV devices, "this is something that cannot be formally disclosed." ASML's existing EUV equipment customers include Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Intel, TSMC, Micron and so on.

As all semiconductor manufacturing companies around the world have placed orders for ASML High-NA EUV equipment, fierce competition is expected to begin when mass production begins in 2025. High-NA EUV equipment is more expensive than the currently used EUV equipment, but it can achieve hyperfine processes (single patterning) at one time, which can greatly increase productivity. As far as Samsung Electronics is concerned, it is necessary to ensure that High-NA EUV devices are used in 2nm mass production after 3nm mass production. Existing EUV equipment is estimated to cost 200 billion won (about 1.008 billion yuan) to 300 billion won (about 1.512 billion yuan), while High-NA EUV equipment is estimated to cost 500 billion won (about 25.02 billion yuan).

CTOnews.com learned that ASML had previously announced net sales of 5.8 billion euros, gross profit margin of 51.8% and net profit of 1.7 billion euros in the third quarter. Net sales in the fourth quarter are expected to be between 6.1 billion and 6.6 billion euros.

Peter Wennink, president and CEO of ASML, said: "net sales in the third quarter were 5.8 billion euros and gross profit margin was 51.8%, higher than expected. There is uncertainty in the market due to global macroeconomic factors, including inflation, consumer confidence and the risk of recession. Although there are differences in the demand dynamics of each market segment, our overall customer demand is still strong. This pushed new orders to an all-time high of about 8.9 billion euros in the third quarter, of which 3.8 billion euros came from EUV system orders, including High-NA system orders. "

"Lithography giant ASML had sales of 5.8 billion euros in the third quarter: net profit of 1.7 billion euros and record net bookings of 8.9 billion euros."

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