Intel invests $2.1 billion in tools maker ASML to enable smaller chip circuits

09.07.2012
Intel will take a stake in semiconductor tools company ASML and invest in its research and development efforts, to advance manufacturing technologies that will help Intel produce smaller and more power-efficient chips, the chip maker announced Monday.

ASML, based in The Netherlands, is one of the world's largest providers of tools used for chip manufacturing. It has partnerships with Intel and other leading chip makers including Samsung, GlobalFoundries and TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.).

Intel will initially invest approximately ¬1.7 billion ($2.1 billion) for a roughly 10 percent stake in ASML, and later invest an incremental ¬838 million for an additional 5 percent stake. The latter investment will be dependent on a shareholder vote.

Intel will also invest ¬829 million in ASML's research and development efforts. The investment will be made primarily to advance the use of 450-millimeter wafer and extreme ultra-violet (EUV) lithography, which will help semiconductor companies make chips at a lower cost while scaling down chip sizes.

Intel currently makes chips using a 22-nanometer process, and adding EUV lithography will help it produce chips at smaller geometries. It's scheduled to move to a 14-nanometer process next year, for example, and existing tools are expected to be sufficient for those chips.

Semiconductor chips are made by slicing thin silicon discs, or wafers, from long cylinders of silicon, then "printing" circuits on the wafers and cutting them up into chips. Intel currently uses 300-millimeter silicon wafers, and the larger, 450-mm wafers will allow it to produce more chips from each wafer, with less waste.