ASML expects its high-NA EUV systems to reach the availability required by customers for high-volume manufacturing by the end of 2026. The lithography giant is targeting 90 percent fleet availability in the fourth quarter, up from 84 percent in July, high-NA product management head Greet Storms said at Semicon Taiwan 2026 (via Storm Media).
The target marks one of the final hurdles in ASML’s effort to make its 0.55-NA EXE platform ready for widespread production use. The company has already demonstrated that its latest EXE:5200B meets its key imaging and productivity specifications, reaching 135 wafers per hour in acceptance testing while delivering overlay and focus performance comparable to its established 0.33-NA EUV systems.
Availability, however, remains below the level expected from mature production equipment. ASML has been working to reduce both planned downtime and unusually long interruptions, while transferring diagnostic and maintenance experience accumulated with its NXE systems to the newer EXE platform.
“We believe that by the end of this year, we can bring system availability to a stable level that meets customers’ requirements as they move into high-volume manufacturing,” Storms said. ASML has set 90 percent availability as its Q4 target, with a longer-term goal of 93 percent.
High-NA’s rapidly growing installed base should help. Ten systems are now running at four customers, with another three being shipped or installed. Collectively, EXE systems had accumulated more than 1.35 million wafer exposures by mid-July, providing ASML with an increasingly large pool of operational data to identify problems and improve reliability.
