An important milestone in the development of Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is in danger of missed by Intel.

Under its current roadmap Chipzilla needed to extend 193-nm immersion lithography to the 14-nm logic node in the second half of 2013. Then, the chip giant hopes to insert EUV for production at the 10-nm logic node, which is expected to appear in the second half of 2015.

According to EE Times EUV is late for the 10-nm design rule definition’’ stage. Quoting Sam Sivakumar, director of lithography at Intel, EUV still stands a good chance of being inserted for the company’s 10-nm node if production-worthy tools are shipped by the second half of 2012. But even then EUV will be at the ''late end of the spectrum.”

EUV is a next-generation lithography (NGL) technology that was supposed to be used for production at the 65-nm node. It was delayed, due to the lack of power sources, defect free masks, resists and metrology infrastructure.
Chip makers want the technology for production fabs, in an effort to avoid double-patterning techniques which are somewhat expensive.

EUV is now only likely to be seen at when production technology hits 16-nm node.