Samsung Electronics said on September 8 that it will deepen its collaboration with ASML to accelerate next‑generation semiconductor manufacturing, aligning South Korea’s leading chipmaker with the Dutch lithography specialist on two fronts: co-developing 12‑inch photomasks within a new global consortium and preparing to introduce High NA EUV lithography to advanced DRAM production by 2028. The move is designed to bolster Samsung’s fine process capabilities across both its memory and foundry businesses as device scaling pushes toward tighter geometries.
Samsung has joined ASML’s Large Size Mask Consortium, an industry effort to enlarge the current 6‑inch photomask standard to 12 inches. Participating companies plan to coordinate research, share technology roadmaps, and work toward common specifications for larger masks and compatible lithography equipment. Photomasks—precision plates carrying circuit patterns that are projected onto silicon wafers—are central to lithography, and their size affects how efficiently large or complex layouts can be transferred.
The shift to 12‑inch masks is particularly relevant for High NA EUV, which uses a higher numerical aperture to print finer features than conventional EUV. Under the 6‑inch regime, chipmakers often divide bigger patterns into multiple exposures, a “stitching” process that can introduce alignment challenges and slow throughput. Larger masks are expected to ease those constraints, reduce stitching complexity, and improve productivity—advantages that become more pronounced as transistor counts soar in cutting‑edge memory and logic devices.
Samsung said it will leverage its EUV mass-production experience and its dual role as a memory and foundry manufacturer to support the consortium’s R&D and broader ecosystem development. Beyond masks, the company aims to bring High NA EUV into DRAM fabrication by 2028, a step that could simplify certain patterning steps and enhance yield as feature sizes shrink.
Vice Chairman Yeong‑Hyun Jeon underscored that innovation across the manufacturing stack is becoming more critical in the AI era, framing the ASML partnership as foundational to strengthening competitiveness in advanced semiconductors. ASML Chief Executive Christophe Fouquet characterized Samsung as a long-standing innovation partner and signaled an intent to pursue next‑generation manufacturing solutions together for markets reshaped by AI.
Both companies indicated they plan to expand cooperation into advanced memory and emerging process approaches. As AI-driven demand raises the technical bar for chip production, the 12‑inch mask initiative and High NA EUV roadmap mark a coordinated attempt to speed commercialization of the next wave of lithography, anchored in South Korea’s manufacturing base and ASML’s Netherlands-centered tool leadership.
