NY Creates announced its participation in a newly formed 12-inch mask industry initiative designed to strengthen the high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet (high NA EUV) lithography ecosystem. The collaboration aims to support the transition toward larger masks that increase the area where chip components at the smallest next-generation nodes can be printed. This effort dovetails with NY Creates’ upcoming high NA EUV lithography capabilities, which are part of its High NA EUV Lithography Center and rely on ASML’s High NA EUV equipment capable of printing at the sub-1nm node. Dave Anderson, President and CEO of NY Creates, stated that the initiative reflects the industry’s shared commitment to solving complex technical challenges through collaborative research and development with ASML, TSMC, and partners.
6-by-12-inch mask format vs 6-by-6-inch
The technical driver for this initiative is the physical trade-off inherent in high NA EUV optics. While high NA systems deliver higher resolution, the advanced optics reduce the area that can be printed on a wafer in a single exposure. Today’s standard EUV masks measure approximately 6-by-6-inches, but for larger chips, the reduced field of view requires multiple exposures to be stitched together. This stitching adds complexity and can negatively affect manufacturing efficiency and yield. To address this, industry leaders are exploring a larger 6-by-12-inch mask format that could enable larger areas of a chip to be printed in a single exposure, reducing the need for stitching and improving productivity.
Mask blanks, pellicles, and handling systems
Making the transition to 12-inch masks requires advances across the broader mask ecosystem, including mask blanks, writing and inspection equipment, pellicles, handling systems, and manufacturing infrastructure. NY Creates is participating alongside a number of industry stakeholders committed to ensuring the technology can be successfully developed, integrated, and scaled for future high-volume manufacturing applications. As a neutral hub, NY Creates’ Albany NanoTech Complex provides collaborative infrastructure to unite key stakeholders across the semiconductor industry, supporting leading-edge R&D efforts and accelerating the readiness required for high NA EUV lithography adoption.
TSMC and ASML ecosystem alignment
The move to larger masks is a structural change in the lithography supply chain that affects mask makers, foundries, and equipment suppliers. For foundries like TSMC, which is cited as a partner in this ecosystem, larger masks could improve yield and cost efficiency for advanced logic chips. For mask suppliers like NY Creates, this represents a major expansion of their technical scope and market opportunity. The collaboration with ASML is essential because the mask format must be compatible with the lithography tool’s optical system. This initiative is a key step in the broader ecosystem development required for the next generation of semiconductor manufacturing, impacting the supply chain for advanced logic and potentially high-performance memory devices that rely on similar lithography technologies.
Intel’s 1 million high NA EUV wafers
The urgency of high NA EUV readiness is underscored by recent industry milestones. Intel and ASML recently announced that Intel has processed more than one million 300mm wafers on ASML’s High-NA EUV scanners, a figure that includes tool certification, R&D, and production combined. ASML’s total figure of 1.35 million High-NA wafers made to date puts Intel at roughly three-quarters of the world total to-date. This concentration of high NA volume in a single foundry highlights the critical need for a robust, multi-vendor mask ecosystem to support the broader industry’s transition to sub-1nm nodes.
Molybdenum masks for 12.5-nm half-pitch
The mask ecosystem is also evolving at the material level to support high-contrast imaging. Researchers at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and TSMC published a technical paper proposing molybdenum-based quasi phase-only masks with high reflectivity and minimal absorption. Their simulations demonstrate that these masks deliver up to 35% higher image contrast and a fivefold increase in common focus window compared to conventional tantalum-based absorbers. This work enables 12.5-nm half-pitch resolution for 0.33 numerical aperture EUV systems, indicating that mask technology is advancing in parallel with the move to larger formats and higher NA optics.