ASML, Belgium’s Imec open laboratory to test newest chip-making tool

ASML, a leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer, has established a test lab for its High NA EUV lithography equipment in collaboration with Imec, a Belgian chip research firm.

The laboratory in Veldhoven, Netherlands, has been years in the making and will provide leading chipmakers and other equipment and materials supply companies with an early opportunity to work with the 350 million euro ($380 million) tool, the first of its kind.

ASML dominates the lithography equipment market, which is a critical step in the chipmaking process that involves using light beams to create chip circuitry.

Only TSMC, Samsung, Intel, and memory specialists SK Hynix and Samsung can use ASML’s current generation of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machines.

The new High NA tool provides up to 60% higher resolution and is expected to lead to new generations of smaller, faster chips.

ASML reiterated on Monday that it expects customers to start commercial manufacturing with the tool in 2025-2026.

To date, ASML has only shipped one other test machine, to Intel in the United States, where the tool will be used in its 14A process in 2025.

ASML has more than a dozen orders, but TSMC, its largest customer for EUV equipment, has stated that it does not require High NA tools for its A16 chips, which are expected to go into production in 2025.