Intel speaks out on high-NA cost concerns

High-NA EUV lithography is more cost-effective than low-NA EUV double patterning for chip layers with the smallest features, according to Intel’s Director of Lithography Hardware and Solutions Mark Phillips. “If you use it for the things that it was designed to do, and you’ve had enough confidence that it was going to stay on schedule to plan your process to take advantage of them, then yes, high-NA certainly is cost-effective,” Phillips told Tom’s Hardware.

Phillips pointed out that Intel has been working with ASML for over a decade to make sure that high-NA would meet the chipmakers’ needs in terms of capabilities and cost. In that respect, ASML has delivered what was agreed upon. “There have been no surprises,” Phillips said. Intel recently completed the assembly of a high-NA system at its R&D facilities in Oregon – the second high-NA system ever to be put together and the first to be installed at an external site.