Intel has decided to use a high-end machine from ASML to manufacture some of ​its flagship Panther Lake laptop chips, ASML has announced, a move that will help the chipmaker learn to use the tool more effectively.

Following experiments that began in 2024, Intel has begun to ​use ASML’s next-generation high numerical aperture (High NA) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) ​machines, which print circuit patterns on to microchips, to ⁠help produce a portion of its Panther Lake processors, ASML ​said.

The industry has debated at what point it makes economic sense ​to begin deploying the High NA tools, which likely will be needed by chipmakers in the future as they continue to shrink the atomic-sized features ​that make up chips.

The High NA equipment costs around $400 million, ​or twice as much as the standard EUV machine. The tool is ‌also ⁠technically challenging to introduce into production processes.

Intel is using the High NA tool for specific layers of the chip, which will help Intel and ASML collect data and optimize the equipment.

Intel declined ​to comment on ​the announcement.

The ⁠company uses its 18A manufacturing process to fabricate the Panther Lake chips and already uses ASML’s ​standard EUV lithography machines to do so. Lithography ​is the ⁠process of using light to draw the complex patterns that make up the circuits on a chip.

Intel received the first High NA ⁠tool ​in 2024 at its Hillsboro, Oregon ​research and development site where the company develops its new manufacturing techniques and technologies.