SAN FRANCISCO–(Business Wire)–
ASML Holding NV (ASML) (NASDAQ:ASML) (Amsterdam:ASML) today at SEMICON West
announces broad customer adoption of holistic lithography products which
optimize semiconductor scanner performance and provide a faster start to chip
production. 100% of ASML`s leading-edge scanners are now sold with one or more
holistic lithography components. Semiconductor manufacturers face increasingly
smaller margins of error as they shrink chip features. Holistic lithography
provides a way to shrink within these margins to continue Moore`s Law.

Introduced a year ago at SEMICON West 2009 ASML`s holistic lithography suite of
products enable continued shrink and provide customers with higher yield,
sooner. Holistic lithography integrates computational lithography, wafer
lithography and process control to optimize production tolerances and reduce
“time to money” for chip makers. All of our customers have adopted multiple
products from the holistic product portfolio into research & development (R&D)
as well as volume manufacturing. Products like Source Mask Optimization (SMO),
FlexRay, LithoTuner, Baseliner and YieldStar are in use worldwide.

ASML also offers holistic lithography as an integrated package called Eclipse,
which is tailored to a specific customer, node and application, and which
enables chip makers to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the chip
making process and to enter volume production at the earliest possible time. A
significant number of ASML`s advanced customers have adopted an integrated
Eclipse package.

“Most chip makers have found that for current and future process nodes,
independent optimization of process steps is insufficient. The entire litho
process must be integrated and co-optimized for the best performance. Eclipse
extends the capabilities of their hardware and helps them to produce chips with
smaller geometries, “said Bert Koek, senior vice president, applications product
group at ASML. “With detailed knowledge of our scanner characteristics and
interfaces we can work closely with our customers to integrate computational
lithography solutions during R&D, and implement customized improvement targets
during manufacturing.”

Customers who have adopted Eclipse are seeing the results. STMicroelectronics
for example will incorporate Eclipse in conjunction with a TWINSCAN NXT:1950i
scanner for their 28-nanometer (nm) node. The key deliverables of the package
are on-product specifications for both overlay and critical dimension uniformity
(CDU). The 28-nm Eclipse package for ST includes a full range of products from
ASML, including scanner tuning products, immersion scanner application,
stabilization and conditioning; and the ASML applications support to achieve the
specified targets. Preparations for Eclipse at the next node have started with a
feasibility study on 20-nm critical layer printing options.

“To optimize development cycle times and manufacturing solutions for 28-nm and
beyond, ST is working closely with ASML to define targets, processes and design
parameters,” said Joel Hartmann, Technology R&D Group VP and General Manager
Advanced CMOS, Derivatives and eNVM technology, STMicroelectronics, at Crolles,
France. “ASML`s Eclipse packages include application products, custom project
deliverables and application support that enable joint process optimization.”

About Holistic Lithography and Eclipse

The semiconductor industry is driven by shrink that reduces manufacturing cost
and improves device performance. However, as semiconductor feature sizes shrink,
so do process windows – the accuracy tolerances necessary to produce viable
chips – imposing extremely tight requirements on parameters such as overlay and
critical dimension uniformity (CDU). Independent optimization of separate
parameters is no longer sufficient and holistic lithography intelligently
integrates computational lithography, wafer lithography and process control.

During the chip design phase ASML’s holistic lithography uses actual scanner
profiles and tuning capabilities to create a design with the maximum process
window for a given node and application. Once in manufacturing, ASML holistic
lithography optimizes a scanner for a specific pattern or reticle, and monitors
and controls litho-cell overlay and CDU performance over time to continuously
maintain the system centered in the process window. Integrated into the Eclipse
suite of products are:

* FlexRay uses a programmable array of thousands of individually adjustable
micro-mirrors. It can create any pupil shape in a matter of minutes -
eliminating the long cycle time associated with diffractive optical element
(DOE) design and fabrication and thus accelerating ramp to yield for low k1
designs.
* Tachyon SMO co-optimizes and analyzes scanner source and mask design
simultaneously, ensuring an optimized process window from R&D through production
while minimizing pitch and number of exposures per layer.
* BaseLiner enables optimized process windows and higher yields by keeping
scanner performance to a pre-defined baseline condition.
* YieldStar offers a single sensor solution for CD, overlay and sidewall angle
metrology resulting in high-speed, high precision and high-accuracy measurement.

* LithoTuner optimizes the scanner in an application specific manner. By
combining device pattern information and scanner specific characteristics, the
optimum setting for maximum process window and flexibility will be determined.

About ASML

ASML is the world’s leading provider of lithography systems for the
semiconductor industry, manufacturing complex machines that are critical to the
production of integrated circuits or chips. Headquartered in Veldhoven, the
Netherlands, ASML is traded on Euronext Amsterdam and NASDAQ under the symbol
ASML. ASML has more than 6,600 employees (expressed in full time equivalents),
serving chip manufacturers in more than 60 locations in 15 countries. More
information about Eclipse, including a new video is available on our website:
www.asml.com

ASML Holding NV
Media Relations:
Lucas van Grinsven – Corporate Communications
+31 40 268 3949 – Veldhoven, the Netherlands
or
Ryan Young – Corporate Communications
+1-480-383-4733 – Tempe, Arizona, USA
or
Investor Relations:
Craig DeYoung – Investor Relations
+1-480-383-4005 – Tempe, Arizona, USA
or
Franki D`Hoore – Investor Relations
+31 40 268 6494 – Veldhoven, the Netherlands

Copyright Business Wire 2010