ASML unveils EUV light source advance that could yield 50% more chips by 2030 (reuters.com)
167 points by pieterr 5 hours ago
et1337 3 hours ago
This video is a really cool dive into EUV for the uninitiated (me) https://youtu.be/MiUHjLxm3V0?si=kEPSicC2WXYhcQ6L
seanalltogether an hour ago
The thing I didn't understand after watching that video was why you need such an exotic solution to produce EUV light. We can make lights no problem in the visible spectrum, we can make xray machines easily enough that every doctors office can afford one, what is it specifically about those wavelengths that are so tricky.
zozbot234 17 minutes ago
There is such a thing as X-ray lithography, but it comes with significant challenges that make it not really worth it compared to EUV.
bpavuk 9 minutes ago
on_the_train an hour ago
It really is the specific wavelength. Higher or lower is easier. But euv has tricky properties which make it feasible for Lithography (although just barely it you have a look at the optics) but hard to produce with high intensities.
formerly_proven 20 minutes ago
YetAnotherNick an hour ago
eddyg 2 hours ago
Or this video, which came out before Veritasium's
Hikikomori 2 hours ago
Or this presentation which came out way long ago.
culi 2 hours ago
Here's your link without the surveillance
skrebbel 2 hours ago
With slightly less surveillance
lencastre 38 minutes ago
hinkley 3 hours ago
The whole “exploding tiny drops of metal” in the middle of this is just Loony Toons. This machine is literally insane and two of the companies I am long-long on would be completely fucked without it.
patmorgan23 2 hours ago
You forgot WITH LASERS, and IN A VACUUM
atonse 2 hours ago
Yes it was crazy when I first heard about it "wait what? they shoot it in mid-air?" and that was before I found out they did that like 30k times a second.
But now 100k times a second apparently. Humans are amazing.
hinkley 2 hours ago
flowerthoughts an hour ago
hinkley 2 hours ago
Okay this is weird.
> The key advancements in Monday's disclosure involved doubling the number of tin drops to about 100,000 every second, and shaping them into plasma using two smaller laser bursts, as opposed to today's machines that use a single shaping burst.
This is covered in that video. Did they let him leak their Q1 plans?
xnx 3 hours ago
> The company's researchers have found a way to boost the power of the EUV light source to 1,000 watts from 600 watts now.
> "We see a reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts, and no fundamental reason why we couldn't get to 2,000 watts."
tromp 19 minutes ago
The light power increase is even more impressive at 67%:
> The company's researchers have found a way to boost the power of the EUV light source to 1,000 watts from 600 watts now.
with more on the horizon:
> We see a reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts, and no fundamental reason why we couldn't get to 2,000 watts.
throw0101a 3 hours ago
So how small are individual components (e.g., transistors) nowadays? Presumably there's a lower limit: once you're a few atoms across, it seems that you can't go any smaller (?).
ahazred8ta 3 hours ago
Gates are about 30-50 nm wide, even though they're called '3nm' for marketing reasons.
phkahler an hour ago
Metal pitch is 26nm. That means parallel wires can be placed 2 wavelengths apart with 13.5nm light.
penguin_booze an hour ago
Like free range chicken.
kakacik an hour ago
whazor 3 hours ago
This is about increasing output per machine via upgrades.
cyptus 2 hours ago
some gates are only 10-14 nm wide, thats about 50 silicon atoms!
ranger_danger 3 hours ago
hinkley 2 hours ago
I still think we should have gone with average gates per square mm as a new yardstick. It would also make sense to the Numbers Go Up people.
itopaloglu83 an hour ago
It’s going to be quite funny if they can go below 40nm in gate pitch size, because they’ll need to call it 0nm.
dogma1138 42 minutes ago
onjectic 3 hours ago
> SAN DIEGO, California
> to help retain the Dutch company's edge over emerging U.S. and Chinese rivals
Great news, but what a strange attempt to equate the U.S. and China in this and build a narrative. Cymer was founded in San Diego.
petcat 2 hours ago
Yeah it's an interesting angle in the article. The EUV light source technology is completely designed, developed, and manufactured by Cymer in California, which is a US company that ASML acquired in 2013. If export control agreements were not in place then ASML would have never been permitted to acquire Cymer. And if they are not enforced then the US would almost certainly require ASML to sell Cymer back to US ownership, TikTok-style.
The reality is that it's American technology that is used in ASML machines so I don't know why the article tries to frame it like it's a competition.
merb 12 minutes ago
Your take is also a bad one. No what asml builds is not American technology. Why asml succeeded is because they got tons of company’s and people to help them advance the technology of the chip industry. Yes it wouldn’t be possible without the Americans. But it would also not be possible without the Europeans, the Koreans, etc… what asml did was basically ask the technology leaders in each field to build their best product so that they can take their parts and assembly this awesome piece of technology.
ahartmetz 2 hours ago
Which American rival would that be anyway? I have not heard of any.
petcat an hour ago
christkv an hour ago
I think the Japanese are also working on potentially competing technology
on_the_train 3 hours ago
This is a steep increase of power to get out of a vacuum system that is highly sensitive to temperature changes.