ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- ASML announces that TSMC - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company - has joined its Customer Co-Investment Program for innovation, committing to invest EUR 276 million in research and development over the next five years as well as EUR 838 million in a 5 percent ASML equity stake.
The objective of the Co-Investment Program is to accelerate ASML's development of EUV technology beyond this current generation and the development of future 450 mm silicon wafer technology, both due in the second half of this decade.
"One of the biggest challenges facing IC scaling today is how to effectively control the escalating wafer manufacturing cost," said Shang-yi Chiang, TSMC executive vice president and co-chief operating officer.
"We are confident that the additional funding for ASML's research and development programs will help secure and accelerate EUV development activities, in parallel with the necessary focus on improved performance of existing optical lithography tools and speed up the deployment of new technologies for 450 millimeter wafers. This effort will help the industry control wafer cost, and therefore protect the economic viability of Moore's Law."
BACKGROUND
ASML is one of the world's largest providers of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, manufacturing complex machines that are critical to the production of integrated circuits or chips. The Dutch company has almost 8,000 employees on payroll (expressed in full time equivalents), serving chip manufacturers in more than 55 locations in 16 countries.
