Samsung already has a high-NA EUV tool for R&D use at its Hwaseong facility, which is where the two new high-NA machines will also be installed.
The two machines will be assembled as part of a production line and go straight into supporting 2nm foundry processes and the manufacturing of high-end logic products such as Exynos processors and Tesla’s ADAS chips.
Although the assembly of Intel’s high-NA machine took eight to nine months, ASML has accelerated the assembly process in subsequent installations..
Each machine has the capability to produce between 185 and 220 wafers per hour, which will substantially increase Samsung’s 2nm output.
They can fab transistors down to 8nm with a gate pitch of over 40nm and a metal pitch of 20nm.
TSMC says it will not use high-NA for the 2nm process, but will bring it into the production line at the succeeding 1.4nm process. The company has a high-NA machine that it is using for research.
Earlier this week, Qualcomm and MediaTek both said they were looking at moving over to Samsung for 2nm foundry because of TSMC’s high price – said to be $30k per wafer.
