U.S. companies vie for dominance in chip equipment production

Centura Sculpta, a chip patterning tool developed by Applied Materials [APPLIED MATERIALS]

U.S. companies are trying to extend their dominance not only in chip manufacturing but in the production of key equipment for semiconductor patterning, a critical segment presently dominated by the Netherland’s ASML.

Applied Materials, a Santa Clara, California-based chip equipment maker, has recently released a new patterning machine that could reduce reliance on ASML’s lithography machine using extreme ultraviolet (EUV).

Since Korean chipmakers — Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — are major clients for the pricey equipment that costs nearly 200 billion won ($154 million), the offering could impact their manufacturing process and capital expenditure in chip fabrication.

Dubbed Centura Sculpta, the new patterning system is designed to reduce the amount of time spent on the EUV lithography, if not completely replace ASML’s machine.

The EUV machine is essential to produce advanced chips with nodes of less than 7 nanometers. ASML is the world’s only producer of EUV lithography machines.

Still, chip fabrication based on the EUV process is extremely complex and delicate, involving thousands of steps including double patterning.

In the double patterning step, chipmakers split a pattern in half and produce two simpler masks to make them fit for the resolution limits of the EUV machine.

The adoption of Centura Sculpta could simplify the double patterning into a single process by elongating the shapes of a print on a single mask, according to Applied Materials.

“Because the final pattern is created from a single mask, design cost and complexity are reduced, and the yield risk from double-patterning alignment errors is eliminated,” the chip equipment maker said in a statement.

The company claimed that the patterning shaping machine could save chipmakers $250 million if they run a line that makes 100,000 wafers for a month.

In terms of energy, the producers can save 15 kilowatt hour per wafer.

It remains to be seen whether the new system will be well received enough to impact chipmakers’ reliance on ASML.

Intel has announced that it will deploy Applied Materials' equipment while Samsung Electronics participated in the development process.

“Having collaborated closely with Applied Materials in the optimization of Sculpta around our process architecture, Intel will be deploying pattern-shaping capabilities to help us deliver reduced design and manufacturing costs, process cycle times and environmental impact,” said Ryan Russell, corporate vice president at Intel in the statement released by Applied Materials.

Samsung Electronics is a development partner, but the chipmaker stayed mum about whether it will deploy the tool.

“Three critical issues must be considered when pushing the limits of patterning: tip-to-tip spacing, pattern bridge defects and line edge roughness,” said Park Jong-Chul, a master at Samsung Electronics.

“As an early development partner on the innovative pattern-shaping technology, I believe Applied's Sculpta system is a fascinating breakthrough that addresses these patterning challenges and reduces manufacturing costs for chipmakers worldwide.”

Samsung Electronics has been keen on securing EUV machines, with Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong regularly flying to the Netherlands to meet with ASML executives.

But the chip producer faced a limited supply of the machine especially in the outbreak of global chip shortage in 2021.

Only around 40 units of EUV machines can be manufactured annually, and Taiwan’s chipmaker TSMC remains the biggest buyer of them.

BY PARK EUN-JEE, PARK HAE-LEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]