Intel has started using a highly advanced chipmaking tool from Dutch firm ASML to manufacture parts of its next-generation Panther Lake processors, a subset of the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 laptop line, ASML recently announced in an official press release.

The machine, as per ASML, is a next-generation "extreme ultraviolet" (EUV) light printer. It works like a microscopic projector, using intense light to draw incredibly tiny, atomic-sized circuit pathways onto silicon wafers. Priced at roughly $400 million, the machine costs twice as much as standard chip printers and is notoriously difficult to set up and integrate into an active factory.

Intel bought the very first version of this machine in 2024 for its research site in Hillsboro, Oregon, to test it out. Recently, Intel also successfully installed and approved ASML’s updated, second-generation version of the machine, which prints faster and with even greater precision, says ASML.

Microchips are built by printing multiple layers on top of each other. Intel is using the new machine to print only a few specific layers of the Panther Lake chips, while the remaining layers are printed using older, existing equipment.

According to ASML, this is the first time this specific technology, called High-NA EUV, has been used in high-volume logic chip manufacturing. Intel stated that the chips are shipping to customers with production yields that match its existing manufacturing platforms. Running the tool allows Intel and ASML to collect operational data to alter system setup and uptime for future use.

Naga Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice President at Intel Foundry, stated that qualifying the machine for specific layers provides increased factory output while the company develops production options for future chip nodes.

ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet stated that the technology delivers increased resolution and process control, allowing for the denser patterning required by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.