ASML Unveils EUV Light Source Advance That Could Yield 50% More Chips By 2030

Source: Slashdot

Background

Researchers at ASML Holding say they have found a way to boost the power of the light source in a key chip‑making machine to turn out up to 50 % more chips by decade’s end (Reuters). ASML is the world’s only maker of commercial extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, a critical tool for chipmakers such as TSMC, Intel and others in producing advanced computing chips (Slashdot).

Michael Purvis, ASML’s lead technologist for its EUV source light, emphasized that the improvement is not a short‑term demonstration: “It’s a system that can produce 1,000 watts under all the same requirements that you could see at a customer.” He made the comments at the company’s California facilities near San Diego.

Technical Advance

The newly disclosed advance raises the EUV light‑source power from the current 600 watts to 1,000 watts. Greater power allows shorter exposure times, which translates into higher chip‑per‑hour rates and lower per‑chip costs.

Key technical changes include:

• Doubling the number of tin droplets injected into the plasma chamber to about 100,000 per second.
• Using two smaller laser bursts to shape the droplets into plasma, instead of the single shaping burst employed in today’s machines.

In ASML’s EUV system, a stream of molten tin droplets is shot through a chamber where a massive carbon‑dioxide laser heats them into plasma. The superheated tin emits EUV light at a wavelength of 13.5 nm, which is then collected by precision optics supplied by Germany’s Carl Zeiss AG and directed onto silicon wafers coated with photoresist.

Industry Impact

Teun van Gogh, executive vice president for the NXE line of EUV machines at ASML, told Reuters that customers should be able to process about 330 silicon wafers per hour on each machine by the end of the decade, up from 220 wafers per hour today. Depending on chip size, each wafer can hold anywhere from dozens to thousands of devices.

Purvis added that the 1,000‑watt breakthrough “opens a reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts, and no fundamental reason why we couldn’t get to 2,000 watts,” suggesting further cost reductions and throughput gains in the future.