Rumor
Micron reportedly upgrades clean room capacity by adding EUV layers and replacing KrF tools
Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 11:15 PM
Micron is reportedly upgrading its manufacturing equipment by increasing the number of EUV lithography layers to optimize clean room floor space and replacing older KrF tools with higher-throughput alternatives to improve production efficiency. Applied Materials has acknowledged these tool upgrade trends within the industry.
Context
At the Cantor Fitzgerald Global Technology Conference, leadership from Applied Materials confirmed that customers like Micron are upgrading toolsets to maximize existing clean room efficiency. This optimization includes adding additional EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) layers to clear floor space by replacing older, lower-throughput KrF (Krypton Fluoride) lithography tools. As DRAM production becomes more complex, particularly with HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory) requiring three times the wafer area of standard memory, managing physical fab constraints has become a critical bottleneck for scaling capacity.
This shift is part of a broader strategic pivot for Micron, which traditionally aimed to minimize EUV use to control costs but is now accelerating adoption to compete in the AI memory race. The company is currently mass-producing 1-gamma (1γ) node DRAM and preparing for 1c process yield tests, which will support next-generation HBM4E stacks by the end of 2026. By upgrading to higher-productivity tools, Micron and its partner Applied Materials aim to achieve a 20% revenue growth in silicon by 2026, despite the industry's limited availability of new clean room space.
Sources (11)
Micron to adopt EUV in DRAM manufacturing by 2024Applied Materials at Cantor Fitzgerald Conference: Strategic Growth in AI By Investing.comApplied Materials and Micron Partner To Advance U.S. - GlobeNewswireReport from SPIE- EUV's next 15 years- AMAT...EUV's Future Looks Even Brighter - Semiconductor EngineeringExtreme ultraviolet lithography - Wikipedia[PDF] 2021 EUVL Workshop - EUV Litho, Inc.Micron Joins the 1c DRAM Mass Production Race, HBM4E Emerges as Next Key Battleground — BigGo Finance
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