On June 30 local time in 2026, Intel held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new photomask (also referred to as reticle) manufacturing facility at its Bowers Campus in Santa Clara, California, United States. The event was attended by Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, key executives including the head of its foundry division and general manager of mask operations, as well as Lisa Gillmor, Mayor of Santa Clara.
Spanning approximately 107,000 square feet (around 9,940 square meters), the project comprises a new photomask fabrication plant and a new utility building, solidifying the site’s role as Intel’s primary photomask production hub.
The new facility will be capable of manufacturing 6-inch-by-6-inch photomasks for deep ultraviolet (DUV), extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and a wide range of process nodes from 32 nm down to 1.4 nm. Its core mission, however, is to produce photomasks for Intel’s cutting-edge process technologies including 18A, 18A-P and 14A. These advanced nodes rely on DUV, EUV and future High Numerical Aperture (High-NA) EUV lithography systems, calling for state-of-the-art masks such as curved-shape reticles featuring ultra-high pattern density and curved optical proximity correction (OPC) technology.
Intel ranks among a small group of global chipmakers operating in-house advanced photomask fabrication sites. This self-sufficiency carries critical importance, as leading-node chips can require hundreds of individual photomasks, and defects on any single reticle can disrupt entire wafer production runs.
Furthermore, in-house mask manufacturing has grown increasingly vital with the adoption of EUV lithography layers. EUV exposure gradually degrades photomasks even with protective pellicles, so the ability to rapidly produce replacement masks on short notice is essential to sustaining uninterrupted manufacturing.
Notably, Intel is currently the only semiconductor company to independently develop photomask writing equipment, with this business operated by its subsidiary IMS Nanofabrication.
Traditionally, photomask patterning relies on slow single-electron-beam direct-write systems. By contrast, IMS multi-beam mask writers (MBMWs) deploy up to 262,144 individually programmable electron beams simultaneously for pattern writing, boosting throughput by multiple orders of magnitude while retaining nanometer-level precision.
“For decades, Santa Clara has been home to many of Intel’s most pivotal manufacturing innovations,” said Dr. Frank Abboud, Vice President of Intel Foundry and General Manager of Mask Operations. “This expansion of photomask capacity at the Bowers Campus strengthens a foundational capability underpinning global advanced-node production, while reinforcing Intel Foundry’s commitment to advancing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing.”
Intel’s Bowers Campus in Santa Clara has specialized in photomask production since 1986. Together with its site in Hillsboro, Oregon, it forms Intel’s core global photomask manufacturing infrastructure.
(Reprinted from https://news.eccn.com/）