Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company have agreed to begin using ASML’s newest lithography tools, joining Intel in committing to machines that cost roughly $400 million each. Along with that commitment, the four companies signed on to a change to the masks used inside those machines to print circuit patterns, a shift ASML says could boost output by as much as 40 percent. The agreement, announced Sept. 8, 2026, puts ASML’s three largest customers on the same technology roadmap for the first time.
The tools at the center of the deal are known as High NA EUV machines, the most advanced lithography systems ASML makes. High NA machines use extreme ultraviolet light to etch transistor patterns onto silicon wafers with a resolution of about 8 nanometers, roughly the width of 40 silicon atoms, a step up from the 13-nanometer resolution of ASML’s earlier EUV tools. Intel has already taken delivery of the machines; Samsung and TSMC are now committing to timelines of their own.
Why Six-Inch Photomasks Became a Bottleneck
Photomasks work something like carved printing blocks: a pattern etched onto the mask is transferred by light onto the silicon wafer below, layer by layer, until the finished chip emerges. The industry has used six-inch masks for decades, and that fixed size has quietly shaped how modern chips are built. Unable to make individual chip dies larger, manufacturers turned to stacking chips vertically and wiring them together with increasingly complex connections, adding cost and design complexity to nearly every advanced processor now sold, according to a Bloomberg report on the agreement.
The Move to Twelve-Inch Masks
ASML, TSMC, Samsung and Intel have now agreed to move from six-inch masks to twelve-inch versions, doubling the mask’s surface area. ASML Chief Technology Officer Marco Pieters said the larger masks could lift throughput on High NA machines by 40 percent while simplifying chip design, since engineers would no longer need to split as many circuit layers across multiple exposures. “This is a big step forward for the adoption of High NA in high-volume manufacturing,” Pieters said, adding that customers “recognize the benefit of those systems compared to multi-patterning strategies.”
How a High-NA Machine Actually Prints a Chip
Lithography works by shining light through a mask and focusing it onto a wafer coated in light-sensitive chemicals, fixing the circuit pattern in place before etching and material deposition build out the transistors. The size of the features a machine can print is set largely by the wavelength of light used and by the numerical aperture, a measure of how tightly the optical system can focus that light. ASML’s High NA machines raise the numerical aperture from 0.33 to 0.55 compared with standard EUV tools, a change that required Zeiss, the German optics maker, to build mirrors roughly twice the size of those in earlier machines to handle the sharper focusing angles.
Samsung’s Timeline and the Memory Chip Squeeze
Samsung, the world’s largest maker of computer memory chips, plans to begin using High NA tools for memory production by 2028. The company said it will work with industry partners to develop the mask technology and supporting infrastructure the switch requires. The commitment comes as a global shortage of memory chips, driven by AI data center construction, pushes up prices across the electronics industry, giving Samsung an added incentive to bring more advanced, higher-yield manufacturing online.
TSMC’s Slower Road to 2030
TSMC, which manufactures custom chips for Nvidia, Apple and Advanced Micro Devices, has been far more cautious about High NA, arguing for years that the machines’ cost was not yet justified by their productivity gains. Under the new agreement, TSMC will begin using High NA systems with existing six-inch masks in 2030, aim to build a test line for twelve-inch masks by 2031, and target full production using the larger masks by 2033. “TSMC has always believed in the power of collaboration to overcome technical barriers before they become economic barriers for the semiconductor industry,” Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei said in a statement announcing the plan.
Intel’s Head Start on Panther Lake
Intel was ASML’s first High NA customer, taking delivery of a machine at its Oregon fab and beginning high-volume manufacturing of its Panther Lake mobile processors with the technology starting in July 2026. That early adoption is central to Intel’s push to rebuild itself as a contract manufacturer for outside chip designers, a business it has struggled to establish after ceding ground to TSMC and Samsung over the past decade. Intel has also spent more than three years contributing to the effort to shift the industry toward twelve-inch masks, work that helped set the terms of this week’s four-way agreement, according to MIT Technology Review’s reporting on ASML’s High NA program.
TSMC alone accounts for roughly 16 percent of ASML’s revenue, and with Samsung and Intel now aligned on the same mask standard, ASML’s three largest customers are moving in the same direction for the first time since High NA machines went on sale. Coverage of the announcement noted that the shift is expected to unfold gradually over the rest of the decade rather than all at once, with each company adopting the larger masks on its own schedule as the surrounding supply chain, including mask manufacturers, catches up to the new standard.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
More from Morning Overview
- A California supervolcano has bulged upward about two and a half feet since 1978
- The FTC is warning about a scam quietly draining thousands from victims
- The NSA is again telling phone owners to switch off one location setting
- A handful of car transmissions are so tough mechanics say they almost never fail
