Date: 02/12/2010

ASML's semiconductor manufacturing equipment can process 1 million+ chips/day

The leading semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding NV has announced that two semiconductor chipmakers using ASML's TWINSCAN semiconductor lithography scanners have set a new productivity record of imaging more than 4,000 silicon wafers within 24 hours. A typical DRAM memory chip has 35 - 40 layers with each 300mm DRAM wafer containing 1200-1400 chips.

The equipments handled this speed are XT:870 and an XT:400 , which are in operation at two different customer sites in Asia.

Chip companies handling more than one million wafers in a 365 day period are allowed to join ASML's "million wafer club". This club has more than 200 scanners and more than 25 immersion tools. Additionally a scanner recently processed the fastest million wafers so far in only 37 weeks. With 1million silicon wafer processing capacity, DRAM makers can achieve a production of 35 million DRAM memory chips within one year.

"The ability of a machine as complex as a modern lithography scanner to accomplish these productivity milestones is testimony to the dedication and cooperation of both our employees and our customers," said Frits van Hout, executive vice president, and chief marketing officer at ASML. "Providing customer value through high-productivity has always been the goal of ASML. We will continue to improve that value through further TWINSCAN platform is widely used 300 mm/12 Inch semiconductor wafer processing with more than 1000 systems sold.