Is the industry’s patience with EUV running out?

The latest set back appears to have hit TSMC, which recently took delivery of a prototype from ASML. According to the company, a 'misalignment' with a 200kW laser 'damaged some components'. The damage is sufficient that the tool will be offline for some time. EUV has been positioned for some time as the saviour of 'conventional' lithography. Initially pencilled in for use at the 32nm node, people in the know suggest that it may struggle to be used at the 7nm node – and it seems the search has started for another approach. Does this suggest patience has run out? The problem with EUV continues to be focused on the power source needed to write on wafers. The tool at TSMC had a 10W source running on a 20% duty cycle. That's nowhere near the throughput such a tool would need to achieve in order to 'earn its keep'. Fabs such as TSMC will be looking at throughputs in excess of 100 wafers an hour, at which rate, the light power at the wafer has to be in the range of 200W. The gap is stark.