Intel Ireland’s Fab 34 facility took another step towards the high volume production of the next wave of Intel technology, Intel 4, as its advanced machinery generated light for the first time.
This marks a major milestone for the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) scanner, Intel’s first in Europe.
EUV is part of the Intel 4 process, which achieved manufacturing readiness this year for products such as Meteor Lake. The lithography process transfers patterns to a silicon wafer, creating the blueprints for integrated circuits. The EUV system allows the company to print circuitry smaller and more precisely than before.
Intel Ireland took delivery of the machinery earlier this year, and has been working to prepare it over the past few months. The EUV system has 100,000 parts, 3,000 cables, 40,000 bolts and more than a mile of hosing. The project has also seen 18 months of design and construction activity at the Leixlip, Co Kildare, plant to prepare the Fab 34 building to receive the machine.
Work on Fab 34 started in 2019, with the facility due to start production in 2023. The factory will double Intel’s manufacturing space in the Republic and pave the way for production of the Intel 4 process technology.
