Lam Research and imec Prove Dry Resist Ready for High-NA EUV Ruthenium Interconnects - Tech Times

Ruthenium displacing copper in interconnects is the most consequential metallurgical pivot since aluminum yielded to copper in the late 1990s. The dry-resist validation by Lam and imec removes the final integration blocker: ruthenium's surface chemistry is fundamentally incompatible with alkaline wet developers, triggering oxidation and adhesion failure. This locks in a trinity of High-NA EUV, dry resist, and ruthenium that creates an exclusive dependency on ASML's 0.55 NA ecosystem—any alternative route loses its process window below 2nm. Upstream, TOK and JSR will compress dry-resist R&D timelines within a year, yet Lam's integrated etch-deposition-resist stack builds a structural moat no pure resist supplier can replicate. Downstream, ruthenium's 3-to-5x cost premium over copper pressures 300mm wafer economics; Intel's IDM 2.0 cadence makes it the probable first volume qualifier, while TSMC's N2 roadmap will likely wait for cost curves to flatten. Geopolitically, imec's involvement signals the EU's strategic positioning at the materials-science layer, not merely as a fab site. More critically, ruthenium supply is concentrated in South Africa and Russia—a vulnerability vector neither the US CHIPS Act nor the EU Chips Act has adequately addressed. Within 12–24 months, expect pilot qualification at two leading foundries by mid-2026, triggering a $2–3B structural realignment in the CMP and wet-chemical supply chain, with incumbent wet-chemistry players hit hardest.