SAN DIEGO, California – Scientists at Netherlands-based ASML Holding have developed a breakthrough that could dramatically increase semiconductor production, enhancing the power output of specialized chip-manufacturing equipment to potentially produce 50% more processors by 2030.
The Dutch company stands as the sole global manufacturer of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) equipment, essential machinery used by major semiconductor producers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Intel to create cutting-edge computer processors.
Michael Purvis, who leads EUV source light technology development at ASML, emphasized the practical nature of their achievement during discussions at the company’s California research center near San Diego.
“It’s not a parlor trick or something like this, where we demonstrate for a very short time that it can work,” Purvis explained.
He continued, “It’s a system that can produce 1,000 watts under all the same requirements that you could see at a customer.”
The strategic importance of EUV equipment has made it a focal point of international technology competition. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have collaborated with Dutch officials to block these machines from reaching China, prompting Beijing to launch its own domestic development program.
Meanwhile, American entrepreneurs are pursuing alternatives, with startups Substrate and xLight raising substantial funding to create U.S.-based competitors to ASML’s technology. The Trump administration has provided government support to xLight’s efforts.
Monday’s technological revelation, disclosed exclusively, represents ASML’s strategy to maintain its competitive advantage by tackling the most technically demanding component of these sophisticated machines.
The core challenge involves creating EUV illumination with sufficient intensity and precise characteristics for high-volume chip manufacturing. ASML’s research team has successfully increased the EUV light source output from its current 600 watts to 1,000 watts.
This enhanced power directly translates to faster chip production rates, which helps reduce manufacturing costs per processor.
The chip creation process resembles photographic printing, where EUV illumination exposes silicon wafers treated with specialized chemical compounds called photoresist. Stronger EUV sources require less exposure time for each chip.
Teun van Gogh, who oversees ASML’s NXE EUV machine division as executive vice president, told reporters about their customer-focused goals.
“We’d like to make sure that our customers can keep on using EUV at a much lower cost,” van Gogh stated.
Van Gogh projected that by decade’s end, customers should achieve processing speeds of approximately 330 silicon wafers hourly per machine, compared to today’s 220 wafers. Individual wafers can contain dozens to thousands of chips, depending on processor dimensions.
ASML achieved this power increase by refining an approach that already makes their equipment among humanity’s most intricate technological creations.
To generate light at 13.5 nanometer wavelengths, ASML’s systems propel streams of liquefied tin droplets through specialized chambers, where powerful carbon dioxide lasers transform them into plasma.
This superheated matter state causes tin droplets to reach temperatures exceeding the sun’s surface, producing EUV illumination that precision optical components from Germany’s Carl Zeiss AG capture and direct into chip-printing systems.
Monday’s breakthrough involved increasing tin droplet frequency to roughly 100,000 per second – double the previous rate – while using two smaller laser pulses for plasma formation instead of current single-pulse methods.
Jorge J. Rocca, a Colorado State University professor specializing in laser technologies who has mentored several ASML researchers, praised the accomplishment’s difficulty.
“It’s very challenging, because you need to master many things, many technologies,” Rocca observed.
“What was achieved – one kilowatt – is pretty amazing,” he added.
ASML believes their methods for reaching 1,000 watts will enable future improvements, according to Purvis, who noted, “We see a reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts, and no fundamental reason why we couldn’t get to 2,000 watts.”
