In an effort to support its growing lithography business in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region in general, ASML has said that it is increasing its Japanese workforce to more than 200 employees, of which about 80 percent are engineers. 12 immersion systems shipped during this year’s third quarter went to Japanese customers, the company noted. Three Japanese chip manufacturers have taken delivery of multiple TWINSCAN XT:1700i and XT:1900i immersion systems to date.
“ASML’s immersion technology is helping Japanese customers meet their roadmap requirements,” said Hiroshi Ishiwata, President and Representative Director, ASML Japan. “Japan’s leading memory chipmakers are adopting the TWINSCAN platform to produce their leading-edge devices because of its productivity, overlay and imaging performance.”