IN Brief:
- Nikon is developing a new ArF immersion lithography platform for launch in fiscal 2028.
- The company is targeting compatibility with ASML-based fab environments through a new lens and wafer-stage architecture.
- Deep-ultraviolet lithography remains embedded in advanced chip production despite the strategic dominance of EUV.
Nikon is preparing a renewed push in ArF immersion lithography, with a lower-cost platform planned for fiscal 2028 as semiconductor manufacturers continue to balance advanced-node demand with concentrated tool supply.
The work centres on deep-ultraviolet lithography, rather than the extreme-ultraviolet systems that dominate the most visible part of advanced chipmaking. ArF immersion scanners remain embedded in semiconductor production, including process flows where EUV handles selected layers while DUV carries a large share of patterning activity.
By developing a new projection lens and wafer-stage architecture, Nikon is aiming to make its next ArF immersion platform compatible with fab environments already built around ASML equipment. That compatibility will have to reach beyond mechanical fit, because scanner integration affects overlay control, wafer handling, recipe transfer, tool matching, maintenance routines, and yield management.
Although EUV has reshaped the high end of lithography, ArF immersion remains a core production technology across logic, memory, analogue, mixed-signal, and power devices. Advanced chips still require multiple exposure technologies across different layers, while mature and specialist processes continue to depend heavily on DUV capacity for cost-effective volume manufacturing.
ASML holds the dominant position in lithography and remains the sole supplier of EUV systems. Within DUV, Nikon has a clearer route to compete where fabs want additional sourcing options, particularly if tool cost and integration complexity can be reduced. A second source cannot remove process risk, but it can reduce procurement pressure in a market where scanner lead times, service capacity, and equipment pricing feed directly into fab planning.
Semiconductor manufacturing is under pressure from AI accelerators, high-bandwidth memory, and industrial processors, all of which draw on different parts of the wafer-fabrication chain. Samsung’s 12-layer HBM4E sampling highlights how memory bandwidth and stack architecture now depend on a wide set of process, packaging, and equipment capabilities.
Manufacturing geography is also moving closer to electronics strategy. Nexperia’s route to US wafer production for next-generation power MOSFETs shows how device availability increasingly depends on process resilience, capacity planning, and regional manufacturing access. Lithography sits further upstream, but the same pressure applies: component supply is ultimately constrained by equipment capacity.
Nikon’s cost argument rests partly on greater in-house manufacturing, which could give the company more control over pricing and platform development. The harder task will be proving that a lower-cost ArF system can meet the stability, uptime, overlay, serviceability, and process-compatibility demands of high-volume fabs.
If Nikon can deliver a credible 2028 platform, ArF immersion could become a more competitive part of the lithography market. The technology may sit outside the EUV spotlight, but in semiconductor production, the less visible layers still decide whether capacity is resilient enough to meet demand.
