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Some interesting though general bites of information came out of ASML’s quarterly conference call today that noted the adoption cycle by the various chip manufacturers for immersion lithography. 

ASML’s head honcho Eric Meurice noted that the initial wave of volume production orders for immersion tools was coming from the NAND flash manufacturers as they are pushing the technology nodes harder than anyone else in an effort to remain cost competitive in this rapidly growing market. They are also helped by the fact that NAND technology is much simpler to scale than anything else!

The second wave, which has only just started, comes from the more aggressive DRAM manufacturers pushing 50x nm migration, which is about a year behind that of NAND on a mass-market ramp basis. This will kick-in in 2008, we are told.

The most interesting aspect noted by Meurice was that logic manufacturers would be 12 to 18 months behind DRAM, putting the mass ramp at 45nm somewhere in 2009!

Considering that Intel is using dry double patterning 193nm ArF for its 45nm ramp now underway, immersion volume production ramp for the major foundries and the likes of AMD could well be a 2009 affair!