Chipmaking is an incredibly complex process that only gets more so to meet the needs of smaller, more intricate chips. It requires lithography machines to print and scale these silicon thinking machines. High Numerical Aperture Extreme Ultraviolet, or High NA EUV, lithography tools are among some of the newest and most cutting-edge methods of making chips. These have been recently applied to the industry by big players like Intel in the hopes of stepping ahead of the game, but they might have been beaten to the punch when it comes to commercial application of these machines.
A High NA EUV lithography system has just been set up for mass production by SK hynix in its M16 fab based in Icheon, South Korea. SK hynix is a company known for making storage and memory chips. Its using a TWINSCAN EXE:5200B lithography system, as opposed to the 5000 that Intel setup last year, in an effort to produce what will likely be some of the most powerful DRAM ever made.
