SK Hynix assembles first High-NA EUV lithography tool for mass production at M16 fab

SK Hynix announced that the company has assembled the industry's first High-NA EUV lithography system for mass production at its M16 fab in Icheon, South Korea. Executives from SK Hynix's R&D and Manufacturing, as well as ASML's SK Hynix customer lead, celebrated the milestone at an on-site event. The goal of this system is to accelerate the development and supply of next-generation DRAM, while also strengthening domestic AI-memory leadership and enhancing supply-chain stability through close partner collaboration. This milestone marks SK Hynix's leap ahead of other rivals who still rely on Low-NA EUV.

The ASML TWINSCAN EXE:5200B system delivers about 40 percent higher NA (numerical aperture) than its Low-NA counterpart, which enables features that are 1.7 times smaller with approximately 2.9 times higher transistor density in a single exposure. The machine can achieve a substantial 8nm resolution, which is a significant improvement over the current 13nm resolution achieved by Low-NA systems. ASML frames the milestone as "opening up a new chapter".

Initially, SK Hynix plans to rapidly prototype new DRAM structures, including capacitor trenches, bitlines, and wordlines, to accelerate node development. The company also plans to simplify existing EUV process flows to improve cost competitiveness as development matures.

Future DRAMs are expected to transition to High-NA EUV (around the 2030s); therefore, this tool derisks that path early. SK Hynix has expanded its EUV footprint into DRAM since 2021, and this milestone marks the next step for its next-gen DRAM production.

Being one of the first companies to assemble High-NA EUV systems at a mass-production site places SK Hynix ahead of Micron and Samsung, giving it a competitive advantage in the market. ASML had previously built pre-production High-NA systems (its NXE:5000 series) at Intel's D1X fab, but SK Hynix's installation marks the first assembly of the new EXE:5200B system at a client fab geared for volume production.