FRANKFURT, Germany -- ASML, the world's leading supplier of equipment for etching circuits onto silicon chips, is starting to mass-produce eagerly awaited next-generation machinery that will enable giants like Intel and Samsung Electronics to churn out more powerful semiconductors.
The Netherlands-based group makes semiconductor lithography systems, also known as steppers and scanners, and its technological lead gives it a de facto monopoly at the outset in cutting-edge extreme-ultraviolet lithography equipment.
