American startup Substrate promises 2nm-class chipmaking with particle accelerators, at a tenth of the cost of EUV
For those not familiar, an EUV pellicle is an ultra-thin protective membrane mounted above a photomask during exposure to prevent particles from landing on the mask surface and printing defects onto the wafer. While pellicles have long been standard in deep ultraviolet lithography, EUV pellicles are far more difficult to make and use due to strict requirements for optical transmission, thermal durability, and mechanical stability under EUV radiation. For this reason, Samsung has so far avoided EUV pellicles because they were a net negative for its manufacturing economics and tool stability.
Early EUV pellicles transmitted only around 80% – 88% of 13.5-nm light, causing a 12–20% loss of photons at a time when ASML EUV sources had a performance of around 250W (early NXE:3400B/3400C machines), which would have cut wafer throughput and raised cost per wafer significantly due to longer exposures. At the same time, first-generation pellicles suffered from limited lifetime and thermal instability: they warped or even cracked as well as degraded under sustained EUV radiation, which increased downtime and pellicle failure risk.
Each pellicle can cost from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, so if its replacement cycle were short enough, it would inflate Samsung's costs to something that Samsung's margin structure could absorb. So instead of using pellicles, Samsung bet on a pellicle-free EUV flow based on ultra-clean mask handling, frequent reticle inspection and cleaning, and short mask reuse cycles, which preserved throughput and kept defect risk manageable for smaller dies and few EUV layers. However, the flip side of this decision is reportedly inconsistent yields and variability.
Now, ASML has delivered much more capable Twinscan NXE:3600D and NXE:3800E machines with much more powerful light sources and higher throughput. Also, the industry has introduced metal-silicide (and even carbon-nanotube pellicles, but Samsung will reportedly stick to MeSi pellicles) with better transmittance and durability, so using pellicles makes the most sense right now.
Furthermore, as Tesla's AI5 and other chips use SF2/SF3P and other advanced nodes use many more EUV layers than earlier EUV-based designs, the usage of pellicles becomes compulsory even for Samsung.
Pellicles sharply reduce stochastic mask-borne defects, which are increasingly dominant at the 2nm scale. For large logic dies (such as Tesla's AI5), a single particle on a critical EUV mask layer can destroy an entire chip or even repeat across multiple fields. By shifting the particle plane out of focus, pellicles dramatically lower this risk, thus improving yields and, more importantly, yield stability, something that Tesla clearly demands.
Ultimately, Samsung will use its Taylor fab to make chips for other clients in addition to Tesla and perhaps introduction of pellicles to the flow will greatly improve the company's positions on the foundry market as inconsistent wafer-to-wafer and lot-to-lot yields and performance variability is what has historically plagued Samsung Foundry's EUV-based nodes and prevented their usage by clients with larger dies.
Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom\u2019s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-13/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Anton Shilov Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/samsungs-taylor-texas-fab-could-herald-a-breakthrough-for-the-chipmaker-company-plans-2026-risk-production-new-production-flows-pellicles-for-euv-patterning-as-site-targets-50-000-wspm#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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