Canon reckons that manufacturing costs using NIL will be up to 40% less than using EUV and that power consumption using NIL will be 90% less that that used by EUV.
The prize for Canon is that NIL breaks ASML’s monopoly on leading edge litho machines.
Building of the new factory will start next year. It is the first new plant Canon has built for 21 years and will make its existing litho machine range as well as NIL tools.
The factory is expected to cost $345 million, including the equipment cost, and will be built in Eastern Japan in Tochigi prefecture.
Canon has been joined by Dai Nippon Printing and Kioxia in developing NIL technology.
EV Group and Toppan Photomask are also developing NIL tools.
In August, researchers at Tokyo University demonstrated how NIL could be extended to deliver 10nm resolution geometries – opening up the possibility for 2nm and 3nm resolution processes.
Although NIL technology has been worked on for over a decade, implementation issues led to the industry focussing resources on EUV and it became the winning technology.
