SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has assembled the industry's first High NA EUV lithography system for mass production at the M16 fabrication plant in Icheon, South Korea.
At an event to commemorate the assembly of the system, SK hynix's Head of R&D Cha Seon Yong, Head of Manufacturing Technology Lee Byoungki and ASML's Head of Customer Team SK hynix-Japan Kim Byeong-Chan celebrated the introduction of the equipment to produce next-generation DRAM.
The move lays the foundation for a swift development and supply of the cutting-edge products that meet customer demand amid intense competition of the global semiconductor industry. SK hynix aims to enhance credibility and stability of the global supply chain through close collaboration with business partners.
A sophisticated process technology to scale memory cells is critical to advance productivity and product performance. A more sophisticated pattern leads to an increase in the number of chips produced from a wafer and an improvement in power efficiency and performance.
SK hynix has been expanding the scope of EUV adoption for production of the most advanced DRAM since the first introduction of the technology in 2021 for the 1anm, the fourth generation of the 10nm tech. The assembly of the next-generation technology system that outperforms the existing EUV equipment comes amid the company's efforts to prepare for the industry's requirement for extreme scaling and high density.
The TWINSCAN EXE:5200B, the first model for volume production of ASML's High NA EUV product line, enables printing of transistors 1.7 times smaller and achievement of transistor densities 2.9 times higher, compared with the existing EUV system, with a 40% improvement in the NA to 0.55 from 0.33.
With the adoption of the new system, SK hynix plans to simplify the existing EUV process and accelerate the development of the next-generation memory to advance product performance and cost competitiveness. The company also aims to enhance its position in the high-value memory product market and make its technological leadership stronger.
“High NA EUV is a critical technology that opens the next chapter of the semiconductor industry,” said Kim at ASML. “ASML will closely collaborate with SK hynix to bring forward the innovation of the next-generation memory.”
“We expect the addition of the critical infrastructure to bring our technological vision we have been pursuing into reality,” said Cha at SK hynix. “We aim to enhance our leadership in the AI memory space with the cutting-edge technology required by the fast-growing AI and next-generation computing markets.”
Article edited by Joseph Tsai
