ASML bags 4.3 billion dollar EUV order from Hynix

Korean memory maker SK Hynix has signed a 5-year procurement contract worth 4.3 billion dollars with ASML to secure EUV scanners. At the current average purchasing price of 145 million dollars, the order would represent about 30 scanners. However, prices will go up once ASML starts shipping new models. The latest upgrade, the NXE:3600D, is expected to start shipping later this year.

The major order signifies that EUV is ready to be applied in DRAM manufacturing on a large scale. It lags logic production in that respect, partly because logic patterns are more challenging and partly because the performance of the first generation EUV scanners wasn’t good enough to use them for DRAM production cost-effectively.

Samsung, the world’s biggest memory maker, has already been applying EUV in DRAM manufacturing. The first chips have recently been spotted in the wild.