Design Management Group

ASML TWINSCAN

ASML, founded in 1984, is a leading high-tech company engaged in the development, production, marketing and servicing of advanced semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits (ICs).

Its latest flagship product is the modular TWINSCAN step-and-scan tool for 100nm volume production, which features a dual-stage for handling 300mm wafers. In a market once dominated by US companies such as GCA and Perkin-Elmer, there remain only three suppliers of optical lithography tools - ASML, Nikon and Canon.

ASML has adopted a collaborative business model, based on a number of key strategic technology and manufacturing alliances. In total, over 90% of production is outsourced. ASML concentrates instead on system specification and integration. Optical technology is at the heart of the scanner, but unlike Nikon and Canon, ASML has no in-house optical expertise and so it has formed an exclusive strategic partnership with Carl Zeiss. ASML operates a formal strategy with suppliers known as Value Sourcing, aimed at maintaining a world-class supply base through the sharing of risks and rewards.

From less than 10% in 1990, ASML has grown to overtake both Canon and Nikon in terms of market share. It is interesting to speculate on the degree to which this is due to ASML's policy of externalisation of most of its technological development (compared with the more vertically integrated Nikon and Canon). ASML has an extensive network of technology partners, both for supply and for R&D. ASML has close links with IMEC, Europe's leading independent research centre for microelectronics.

Key technology partners include:

• Carl Zeiss : projection lenses
• Philips : wafer stages
• Agilent : interferometry

as well as close relationships with end-users such as TSMC.

With its network of technology partners, ASML's products have been designed around a modular system architecture. This has allowed the optimisation of key system sub-assemblies and ASML is considered to have gained technology leadership in the stepper market.

The modular architecture facilitates testing and integration in the factory and also eases the process of installation and commissioning at the end-user site. This is an important consideration where downtime is measured in millions of dollars per day.

Further information

• ASML website www.asml.com
• World beating lithography, CORDIS Innovation & Technology Transfer case study, July 1997
• Chuma, H. and Aoshima, Y. (2003) Determinants of Microlithography Industry Leadership: The Possibility of Collaboration and Outsourcing, RIETI Discussion Paper Series 03-E-003 ( 249k PDF)

Early days of optical lithography

• Henderson, R.M. and Clark, K.B. (1990) Architectural innovation: the reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms, Administrative Science Quarterly, 35 (1990): 9-30
• Henderson R. (1995) Of Life-Cycles Real And Imaginary - The Unexpectedly Long Old-Age Of Optical Lithography, Research Policy 24 (4): 631-643
• Stowsky, J. (1987) The Weakest Link: Semiconductor Production Equipment, Linkages, and the Limits to International Trade, BRIE Working Paper #27

All trademarks acknowledged.