Intel Foundry and ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) announced continued progress in High Numerical Aperture (High NA) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography production at the SPIE Photomask Technology + Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography conference.

According to a press release, Intel Foundry has processed more than one million wafers using High NA EUV technology to date, spanning tool certification, research and development, and volume production on select layers for a subset of Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, code-named Panther Lake.

The companies stated that overlay, throughput, and availability metrics are meeting Intel Foundry's expectations. Products manufactured on Intel 18A using High NA for select layers are delivering performance that meets or exceeds comparable layers patterned using the NXE platform, which uses EUV with a numerical aperture of 0.33.

ASML President and CEO Christophe Fouquet noted Intel Foundry's role in High NA adoption, citing the installation of the first commercial EXE system in 2024 and the shipment of what the company describes as the first high-volume logic product manufactured with High NA.

Intel Executive Vice President and Co-General Manager of Intel Foundry Naga Chandrasekaran said the company is focused on enabling High NA on 6-inch masks with or without stitching and transitioning to 6x12-inch masks.

The two companies also presented updates on reticle stitching at the conference, a technique that allows designers to use High NA EUV with current standard 6-inch masks.