Intel ships high-volume Panther Lake logic wafers using ASML's new High-NA EUV scanners (0.55 NA), marking first production use of next-gen lithography tool.

Intel has entered high-volume manufacturing using ASML's High NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology for a subset of its Intel Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" processors, becoming the first company to ship high-volume logic products manufactured with the technology. ASML announced the milestone on Wednesday, July 15, confirming that Intel Foundry is running the qualified High NA layers on its Intel 18A process node in Oregon.

Intel is using High NA EUV to pattern selected Intel 18A layers, with products already shipping to customers at yields matched to those achieved on ASML's existing NXE EUV platform. These layers are dual-qualified, meaning the same layer can be exposed on either an existing 0.33 NA NXE scanner or a 0.55 NA EXE scanner, with the resulting wafers being interchangeable.

High NA EUV has long been viewed as the successor to today's EUV lithography, promising to extend semiconductor scaling by enabling manufacturers to print smaller, denser circuit patterns that are becoming difficult to achieve with existing tools. Until now, the platform had been confined to R&D work. This announcement marks the first time High NA EUV has been used to produce and ship a high-volume commercial logic product.

Rather than replacing Intel's entire lithography flow, the company is applying High NA EUV to specific layers while the remainder of Panther Lake continues to be manufactured using conventional lithography. High NA EUV builds on the same 13.5-nanometer extreme ultraviolet light used by today's scanners but increases the optical system's numerical aperture (NA)—how much light a lens system can collect and focus onto a silicon wafer—from 0.33 to 0.55. The higher value resolves finer features in a single exposure, allowing chipmakers to print smaller patterns with greater precision and process control.

This increased resolution is expected to reduce reliance on complex multi-patterning techniques for some of the industry's most demanding layers, thereby simplifying manufacturing and improving feature fidelity. In the long term, these capabilities are expected to support higher transistor densities and improved performance in future processors, particularly as AI workloads continue driving demand for increasingly advanced semiconductor technologies.

"With increased resolution and better process control, the introduction of High NA EUV marks a substantial development in semiconductor lithography," said ASML President and CEO Christophe Fouquet. "We are proud to play a role in enabling the smaller, denser patterning that will accelerate advancements in AI and other emerging technologies."

Intel and ASML have been working toward this milestone for several years. In 2024, Intel completed installation of one of the industry's first commercial High NA EUV lithography systems, the TWINSCAN EXE:5000, at its Hillsboro, Oregon research and development facility. The company later became the first to qualify ASML's second-generation TWINSCAN EXE:5200B, which increases wafer throughput and overlay accuracy while incorporating an improved EUV light source.

Intel has qualified High NA for selected layers on Panther Lake, an approach that mirrors how new lithography generations are typically introduced into advanced semiconductor production before broader adoption across future nodes. Panther Lake was launched at CES on January 5, 2026, with systems on shelves globally from January 27. The announcement's statement that the product is shipping to customers refers to wafer flow from the fab into the supply chain.

Intel Foundry Executive Vice President and General Manager Naga Chandrasekaran stated that qualifying the High NA process option on selected Intel 18A product layers enables the company's existing tool fleet to deliver higher manufacturing output while providing flexibility for future process technologies. ASML and Intel will continue working on High NA readiness, with the flexibility to incorporate the technology into future nodes based on customer needs—most immediately, Intel 14A, which has been designed to use High NA on a set of its tightest-pitch layers.