Intel ships Panther Lake on 18A with ASML High NA EUV, first volume production milestone

Intel Foundry entered high-volume manufacturing of a subset of Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors (code-named Panther Lake) on 18A using ASML's High NA EUV lithography, ASML announced July 15. Specific Intel 18A layers are now dual-qualified on High NA EUV in Oregon with product shipping to customers at yields matched to ASML's existing NXE EUV platform. Intel is the first company in the industry to ship high-volume logic product using High NA EUV technology.

High NA EUV (numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet) enables higher resolution and better process control than standard EUV, allowing smaller, denser patterning. Intel and ASML completed integration of the first commercial High NA EUV system (TWINSCAN EXE:5000) at Intel's Hillsboro R&D site in 2024, then installed the second-generation EXE:5200B, which increases output and overlay accuracy. The milestone demonstrates the technology is production-ready at scale, a step toward broader adoption on future nodes.

For chip architects shipping foundry designs, Intel's move signals confidence in 18A yield maturity and shows that High NA EUV has crossed from R&D into profitable volume. TSMC is eyeing High NA adoption around 2029, so Intel has 2–3 years of competitive lead on next-gen process control. The smaller transistors unlock by High NA matter for AI accelerators where power efficiency and density are core—and intel's willingness to deploy expensive High NA equipment (cost ≈ $400M per tool) signals customer demand for leading-edge AI logic is robust enough to justify the capex.