Canon's new nanoprint lithography tool will take years to rival the EUV equipment that ASML alone provides to make the world's most advanced semiconductors, analysts told EE Times.

Canon's nanoimprint lithography (NIL) technology enables patterning with a minimum linewidth of 14nm, equivalent to the 5nm-node required to produce most advanced logic semiconductors which are currently available. Furthermore, with further improvement of mask technology, NIL is expected to enable circuit patterning with a minimum linewidth of 10 nm, which corresponds to 2nm-node.

Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong has secured additional extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment, which is essential to production of next-generation semiconductors, from ASML.

Chipmakers' multibillion-dollar expansion plans will be constrained by a shortage of critical equipment over the next two years as the supply chain struggles to step up production. The warning comes from Peter Wennink, chief executive of ASML, which dominates the global market for the lithography machines used to make advanced semiconductors.

The chief executive of ASML on Wednesday said the company still has not received permission to ship any of its most cutting edge lithography systems, which are necessary to make advanced computer chips, to China.

ASML Berlin manufactures components for ASML's lithography systems, including wafer tables and clamps, reticle chucks and mirror blocks.

SK Materials announced on June 17 that it has started mass production of high-purity hydrogen fluoride (99.999 percent), an etching gas used to manufacture semiconductors.

Extreme ultraviolet lithography is the next phase of chip manufacture.

ASML, a major supplier to the world's largest computer chipmakers, said sales would be weak in the first quarter as some of its customers had delayed orders into the second half of the year.

The companies will accelerate the adoption of EUV lithography for high-volume production, including the current latest available equipment for EUV (0.33 Numerical Aperture, NA). Moreover, they will explore the potential of the next-generation high-NA EUV lithography to enable printing of even smaller nanoscale devices advancing semiconductor scaling towards the post 3nm logic node.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), China's top state-backed contract chipmaker, has placed an order for one set of extreme-ultraviolet lithography equipment, according to people familiar with the matter.

Intel claimed that it maintained Moore's law scaling with a 10-nm SRAM that it described here at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). However, Samsung followed by describing a smaller 256-Mbit SRAM made with extreme ultraviolet lithography and expressed confidence in EUV.

The Dutch maker of lithography systems said on Wednesday its outlook for 2018 had been bolstered by a growing backlog of orders. Its products play a decisive role in shrinking the size of chips so as to cram ever more circuits onto them.

Samsung will describe a 7nm SRAM made with extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February. Other ISSCC papers will detail memories, sensors and processors spanning everything from fast DRAMs to location trackers embedded in a boot.

According to industry sources on October 19, Samsung Electronics is considering a plan to purchase 10 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools from ASML.

Underpinning all these delays and difficulties with new processes is the continued difficulty of developing production-ready extreme UV (EUV) lithography techniques.

Samsung recently bought ultraviolet lithography machines to make 7nm iPhone processors, The Korea Herald said on Tuesday. Sources claimed that one of Samsung's three co-CEOs, Kwon Oh-hyun, was central to winning the deal, and visited Apple's headquarters in June.

ASML's Holistic Lithography integrates a set of products that enables chip makers to develop, optimize and control the production process at the 7/5 nanometer (nm) logic and 16 nm DRAM nodes.

Japan's Nikon on Monday said it has initiated legal action against ASML and Carl Zeiss, saying the Dutch and Germany companies used its lithography technology without its permission.

Trying to cover the waterfront, TSMC disclosed plans for new high-, mid- and low-end processes at an annual event here. They included an enhanced 7nm FinFET node using extreme ultraviolet lithography, a 12nm upgrade of its 16nm process and a 22nm planar technology - its answer to fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI).

TSMC's paper described a test chip that could pass for a commercial part and said it had "healthy" yields. Samsung described its use of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography to repair what was clearly a research device, suggesting what it will call 7nm could still be years away.

ASML's forecast for its first-quarter profitability has topped analysts' estimates, as Europe's largest semiconductor-equipment maker won orders for six more of its newest lithography machines in the fourth quarter.

If you ask Anthony Yen, who leads EUV lithography development at TSMC, how critical EUV is to Moore's Law, he won't beat around the bush: "Totally critical. 100 percent critical. Very, very critical." TSMC expects to adopt EUV in 2020, when the company aims to begin producing chips on its 5-nm manufacturing line.

TSMC said it has started work on a 5nm process to push ahead its most advanced technology, yet the company remains undecided on the adoption of extreme ultraviolet lithography at that node.

ASML has signed an agreement with one of its major US customers to deliver a minimum of 15 ASML EUV lithography systems to support increased development activity and pilot production of future-generation manufacturing processes.

ASML expects new extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to reach a production standard that satisfies all of its semiconductor-equipment customers by 2017, CEO Peter Wennink said.

TSMC has pulled in plans for initial production of its 16nm FinFET process to the end of 2013. In addition, it hopes to adopt extreme ultraviolet lithography to make 10nm chips starting in late 2015 but is still researching e-beam as an alternative.

At the 2012 International Symposium on Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography, industry and research experts named the timely development of a source suited for high-volume manufacturing as the most critical issue. Other challenges remain the development of yielding masks and the further development of high-quality EUV resists.

Barclays Capital is raising its total lithography units forecast by more than 10 systems, from 234 to 251 in 2012. As many as 260 litho tools could be purchased for semiconductor manufacturing, as foundries are seeing high demand for 28nm chips.

EV Group (EVG) announced that Himax Technologies has placed a repeat order for an IQ Aligner UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) system. The IQ Aligner will be used by Himax to support the company's capacity increase in the production of wafer-level cameras used in mobile phones, notebook computers and other consumer electronic devices.

Applied Materials announced that Toshiba has purchased its SmartSched predictive scheduling software to improve the capacity and efficiency of its photolithography operations. Installation of the first phase of this breakthrough software solution began in August at Toshiba's Fab 4 facility in Yokkaichi, Japan.

Dutch chip lithography manufacturer ASML reported strong sales in the second quarter, but said new orders in the third quarter would be significantly lower, lending weight to reports of slowdowns in the semiconductor industry.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they have developed a technique for pushing the resolution of high-speed e-beam lithography to write patterns for chips as small as 9-nanometers across, much smaller than previously thought possible.

ASML now expects fourth-quarter bookings to be above two billion euro. "NAND flash memory investments for the high volume ramp of new technologies and foundry/logic commitments for new strategic fab projects are driving brisk lithography demand for 2011..."

The milestone has been reached by an XT:870 and an XT:400 , which are in operation at two different customer sites in Asia and which have raised the bar for 300mm lithography productivity.

"We booked EUR 1,297 million worth of systems in the third quarter of 2010 and expect bookings in the fourth quarter to exceed the Q3 level, confirming our potential for 2011 sales growth," said Eric Meurice, president and CEO of ASML.

The most important announcement from SEMICON West was a subtle statement from Globalfoundries about tools. Putting some bits together, it is pretty clear that the company is going to use EUV lithography at the 15nm node.

ASML has announced that four TWINSCAN XT:1900Gi lithography systems have joined its "One Million Wafer Club" of scanners that have processed more than one million silicon wafers within 12 months, underlining the importance and acceptance of this advanced technology in mainstream chip manufacturing.

TSMC, working with ASML and Mapper, have developed a prototype multi-e-beam tool for semiconductor lithography, according to company CTO Jack Sun speaking to the International Electronics Forum 2010 in Dresden.

Lithography light source vendor Cymer swung to net profits of US$16 million in the first quarter of 2010 compared to losses of US$11.5 million a year earlier.