Summary: Samsung is joining ASML's 12-inch photomask initiative and plans to introduce High-NA EUV into DRAM mass production in 2028. The larger mask format is meant to reduce a key limitation of the new lithography system. SK Hynix and TSMC are also now attaching concrete timelines to High-NA deployment.
The semiconductor industry has relied mainly on 6-inch photomasks for decades. With High-NA EUV, that format becomes a constraint: the finer optics can print smaller features but expose a smaller field. Samsung and ASML say 12-inch masks should provide more usable area, reduce stitching constraints and improve fab productivity.
2028 becomes the first major target year
Samsung plans to use High-NA EUV in DRAM high-volume manufacturing in 2028. Reuters reports that SK Hynix is also targeting 2028 for High-NA DRAM mass production and is evaluating participation in the 12-inch mask initiative. TSMC, by contrast, has indicated 2030 for High-NA use in advanced-node high-volume logic production.
Intel already uses ASML's newest generation in production, while Samsung and TSMC have not yet moved High-NA into high-volume manufacturing. The technology is therefore real, but the industry-wide transition is still incomplete.
Pandorex Analysis
The more important signal is not Samsung's announcement alone, but the simultaneous movement of mask size, lithography equipment and production roadmaps. High-NA can only become broadly economical if masks, metrology, process steps and fab workflows evolve with it. After decades of 6-inch masks, the transition is therefore an infrastructure project for the manufacturing chain rather than simply another ASML machine.
That matters especially for large AI chips. Today's accelerators already push close to the maximum printable area of conventional EUV systems. Reuters says the larger mask standard is intended to let High-NA produce chips in size ranges comparable with today's largest data-centre processors without carrying forward the same smaller-field limitation.
Confirmed are Samsung's participation and its 2028 DRAM plan. Still open are the final cost structure, the eventual industry standard and how quickly other manufacturers will actually adopt 12-inch masks. Expected productivity gains also come mainly from the companies involved and still need to be demonstrated in high-volume production.