ASML finds technology that helps increase chip output by 50%.

“This is not magic or a short-term performance, but a system that can generate 1,000 W of power under full conditions at the customer’s facility,” Michael Purvis, technician in charge of the light source of the ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography machine at ASML, told ASML. Reuters.

ASML is the world’s only commercial manufacturer of EUV machines. An increase in EUV light source power from the current 600 W to 1,000 W will allow the production of more chips per hour, thereby reducing costs. According to this Dutch company, the new breakthrough could improve chip output by up to 50% by the end of the decade, helping to maintain a competitive advantage over emerging competitors in the US and China.

EUV is a key tool in advanced chip manufacturing. The machines are so important that the US government coordinated with Dutch officials to prevent their shipment to China. In the US, startups like Substrate and xLight are also raising hundreds of millions of dollars to develop products that compete with ASML.

The chip is printed in a similar way to a photograph, in which EUV light shines onto a silicon wafer coated with a photosensitizer. With a stronger light source, the plant will need shorter exposure times.

According to Teun van Gogh, Vice President in charge of the EUV NXE machine line at ASML, by the end of the decade, each machine will be able to process about 330 silicon wafers per hour instead of 220 today. Each silicon wafer can contain from a few dozen to thousands of chips, depending on size.

ASML achieved its capacity increase by continuing to deepen the methodology that made its machines some of the world’s most complex inventions. To create light with a wavelength of 13.5 nm, ASML’s system shoots a stream of molten tin droplets through a chamber, where a carbon dioxide laser heats them into plasma – a superheated state of matter in which the tin droplets become hotter than the Sun and emit EUV light.

The new technological breakthrough announced this week involves doubling the number of tin droplets to about 100,000 drops per second, while also turning them into plasma using two smaller laser pulses instead of the current one. “This is a huge challenge because you need to master many factors and many technologies,” commented Jorge J. Rocca, professor at Colorado State University.

According to Purvis, ASML believes the techniques used to reach the 1,000 W mark will pave the way for further advances. “We see a pretty clear path towards the 1,500 W mark and there’s no fundamental reason to stop us from reaching 2,000 W,” he said.