GoKawiilASML shipped 48 EUV lithography systems and 131 immersion DUV tools in 2025, generating €32.7 billion in total revenue and ending the year with a €38.8 billion order backlog.
The Dutch company holds a 100% monopoly on EUV lithography and approximately 83% of the global lithography market overall, and its roadmap now spans four distinct generations of technology: DUV immersion systems that still handle the majority of layers on every advanced chip, low-NA EUV scanners that enabled the 5nm and 3nm era, High-NA EUV tools now entering early production at Intel and Samsung, and a Hyper-NA concept that remains in feasibility studies for the 2030s.
Each step up this ladder delivers finer resolution at exponentially higher cost and complexity, and just how aggressively the industry's largest chipmakers adopt each generation will determine the pace of transistor scaling for the next decade and beyond.
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(Image credit: ASML)
DUV immersion and low-NA EUV
ASML's DUV immersion systems are still the backbone of semiconductor manufacturing when it comes to volume production, with the company selling 131 immersion DUV tools in 2025. Even a chip built on TSMC's 3nm node uses EUV on only a handful of critical layers; the majority of patterning steps still run on DUV immersion tools like the TWINSCAN NXT:2100i, which delivers 295 wafers per hour at 1.35 NA with 1.3nm overlay. DUV single-exposure is also the standard in mature nodes powering automotive and industrial chips. While DUV multi-patterning can push down to 7nm and even 5nm, it comes at an enormous cost of up to 34 patterning steps at 7nm versus nine with EUV.
Chinese customers purchased an estimated 70% of ASML's DUV immersion systems in 2024, stockpiling ahead of tightening Dutch export restrictions that now cover the NXT:1970i and newer models. SMIC demonstrated 7nm production using DUV multi-patterning for Huawei's Kirin 9000S, according to TechInsights. However, the process requires significantly longer cycle times than EUV-based production, and questions exist around whether yields are sufficient for volume commercialization.
On the EUV side, ASML's low-NA systems operate at 0.33 numerical aperture with 13.5nm wavelength light, achieving 13nm single-exposure resolution. The TWINSCAN NXE:3600D, introduced around 2021, delivers 160 wafers per hour with 1.1nm matched-machine overlay. Its successor, the NXE:3800E, began shipping in March 2024 and pushes throughput to 195 wafers per hour, upgradable to 230 — following ASML's recently updated roadmap — while tightening overlay below 1.1nm. Each NXE:3800E costs roughly $180 million. It shares its bottom module, including wafer handler and faster stage mechanics, with the High-NA EXE platform, a decision that reduces ASML's manufacturing complexity and provides fabs with a degree of serviceability continuity when they upgrade.
ASML's roadmap extends low-NA further, with the NXE:3800F expected around 2027. It targets a ≤0.9nm overlay and over 260 wafers per hour. A subsequent NXE:4200G targets a ≤0.8nm overlay and over 300 wafers per hour, with an NXE:4200H beyond that at a ≤0.7nm and 330 wafers per hour. Further out, ASML has disclosed a High Productivity platform, the NXE:4600, targeting 400 wafers per hour or more.
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