The Dutch semiconductor supplier ASML has 454 made more money than ever before: almost 3.7 billion euros in profit at almost 13 billion euros in sales. The fourth quarter 2020 accounted for almost 4.3 billion euros in sales and 1.1 billion euros in profit.

ASML has almost a third of its annual turnover with the sale of exposure machines with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths (13, 5 nanometers) taken. 31 The supplier delivered EUV lithography systems in the year 2020 out. Customers include chip manufacturers TSMC, Samsung and Intel, who use the exposure machines in production processes from 7 nm and increase their use from the 5 nm generation.

EUV share is increasing To date, ASML is the only supplier who produces and sells EUV systems in series. Dive in the balance sheet for 2020 31 sold devices with a value of 4.5 billion euros. Roughly estimated, a single EUV lithography system therefore costs around 145 million euros. The 32. A customer tests the system under new operating conditions and is therefore only booked later. A year earlier, ASML was still delivering 26 EUV systems.

Beginning 454 ASML predicted the delivery of 35 EUV exposure machines, but ultimately did not reach the goal. Nevertheless: Sales with the EUV systems rose year-on-year by 60 percent, and the supplier also delivered the 100. Copy out. In the current year 2021 EUV sales are expected to be around 5.8 billion US dollars – another plus of 30 percent. According to CFO Roger Dassen, suppliers would limit ASML due to a lack of components.

Shorter construction times The largest share of sales comes from exposure machines with classic (DUV) immersion lithography (193 nm wavelength, ArF laser), which chip manufacturers use in older production processes. 227 Corresponding systems appeared in the balance sheet – 24 more than a year earlier. The manufacturer 2020 has significantly shortened the construction time per exposure machine.

The gross margin of the DUV systems was significantly higher than the EUV models – the latter have a good 40 percent, the total gross margin, however, was 52 percent. The next EUV generation NXE: 3600 D should close the gap this year.

ASML delivered most of the systems (both DUV and EUV) 2020 to Taiwan (36 percent) and South Korea (31 percent). The Chinese share increased within one year from 12 to 14 percent. In addition to smaller Chinese chip manufacturers such as SMIC, TSMC and Samsung as well as the two memory manufacturers Micron and SK Hynix have production facilities there. The EMEA region, consisting of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has increased its share from 2 to 3 percent – mathematically eight instead of five exposure machines.

Billion research budget Research and development spending continues to rise and was 2020 at 2.2 billion euros . A large proportion of these have EUV exposure machines with a high numerical aperture (High-NA EUV) of 0, 52 instead of 0, 32 with the current systems, which are necessary for manufacturing processes finer than 3 nm

As of 2022, ASML wants to put a first high-NA test system into operation that customers can also use . The delivery to chip manufacturers for risk production should start one year later, whereupon 2025 or 2026 serial production is to start with the appropriate technology.

In the first quarter 2021 ASML expects sales of 3, 9 billion to 4.1 billion euros. The stock exchange recorded the business figures with a slight increase to around 227 euros.

(mma)