ASML is close to clearing the last obstacle between its next-generation lithography platform and the factory floor. Ten high-NA EUV systems are now running at four chipmakers, three more are being shipped or installed, and the company says machine reliability is the remaining gap to production readiness.
Availability across the installed EXE fleet stood at 84 percent in July. ASML is pushing that to 90 percent by the fourth quarter and eventually toward 93 percent, the durability normally expected of mature chipmaking tools.
Greet Storms, who runs high-NA product management, told SEMICON Taiwan attendees he expected the scanners to be dependable enough for mass production before 2027 begins.
The tools have already cleared their technical benchmarks. The newest EXE:5200B reached 135 wafers per hour in acceptance tests with overlay and focus on par with ASML’s earlier EUV generation. What remains is reliability work: cutting planned downtime, shortening long interruptions and transferring maintenance know-how from the older NXE fleet to the EXE line.
Wafer exposures across the deployed systems passed 1.35 million by mid-July, giving ASML a growing pool of operational data to find faults as chipmakers prepare production ramps.
