ASML이 더 크고 복잡한 AI 프로세서 제조를 위해 엔지니어링된 차세대 칩 제조 장비를 발표했다.

ASML, the Dutch maker of advanced chip manufacturing equipment, is planning to work with its largest customers to develop tools capable of producing larger, more complex processors designed for AI data centres.

The company's current extreme ultraviolet lithography machines can print chips up to about 800 square millimetres—a limit that chip designers including Nvidia and Google already approach. ASML's next-generation High NA EUV tools can create finer features, but their smaller mask size restricts the maximum chip area they can print.

To overcome this constraint, ASML is transitioning to a larger mask size, enabling its newest machines to produce chips as large as today's largest data centre processors. The company plans to show a pilot line using the larger masks by 2031, with high-volume production targeted for 2033.

"If we're going to pull it off as an industry, then you'll actually see that the productivity of those systems will go up by 40%," Marco Pieters, ASML's chief technology officer, told Reuters.

Intel is already using High NA tools for laptop chip production, but Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung have not yet adopted them for high-volume work. This week, TSMC announced plans to use High NA technology in advanced high-volume production from 2030. Samsung aims to introduce High NA EUV into DRAM memory chip production by 2028, while SK Hynix is also evaluating participation in the programme, targeting 2028 for applying High NA EUV processes to DRAM mass production.