Every chip in the devices we use today begins as a blank silicon wafer etched with intricate circuit patterns. The tiniest features on these wafers are about 20,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair. These patterns are created using light so precise that it is invisible to the human eye.
This process is known as lithography, often described as the modern equivalent of printing for semiconductors. When it comes to manufacturing the most advanced and fastest chips, only one company in the world currently has the technology to do it. That company is ASML, founded about 40 years ago in the Netherlands. Today, it holds a near-monopoly on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, a technology it spent two decades developing.
ASML produces around 40 such machines annually for leading chipmakers such as TSMC, Samsung Electronics and Intel. The company also collaborates with specialised firms that solve highly complex technical challenges. These include Germany’s Trumpf, which manufactures high-power lasers, and Carl Zeiss AG, which produces the advanced mirrors used in EUV systems.
Although several companies build lithography equipment, none have successfully developed EUV lithography at scale. Nikon, for instance, spent nearly 20 years trying to create EUV systems but eventually abandoned the effort about a decade ago, citing the enormous investment required.
