EUV Lithography Explained

Lithography is the process that determines the resolution and accuracy of the circuit patterns on each chip, which directly impacts the performance and functionality of the semiconductor devices.

ASML is the only company on earth currently building the complex EUV lithography systems necessary to manufacture the world’s most advanced semiconductors.

Today’s most advanced chips contain billions of transistors and each new generation of chip – commonly referred to as a node – packs in more transistors to continue making chips faster, more powerful and efficient.

As the semiconductor industry continues to innovate, there are two critical means of enhancing performance, productivity, and overall chip yield: power and polarization.

xLight's EUV Free Electron Lasers (FELs) directly addresses both. Our EUV FEL light source produces 4X more power than LPP. By delivering up to 4X higher EUV power, fabs can optimize patterning improvements, productivity, and yield, unlocking billions in additional annual revenue per scanner and ~50% per wafer cost reduction.

Additionally, a single xLight system can support up to 20 ASML systems with a 30-year operating lifetime, reducing capital and operating expenditures by more than 3X.

In addition to being more powerful, our FEL system has programmable light characteristics that improve current capabilities. Connecting existing ASML systems to an xLight FEL significantly improves the tool’s capabilities, delivering next-version scanner performance without the cost and complexities.

While ASML’s EUV lithography systems currently print features on chips using light at a tiny wavelength of 13.5 nanometers, printing ever-finer features on the chips of tomorrow will require next-generation wavelengths of EUV light. Our system’s programmable light characteristics will enable the shorter wavelengths of light, which will enable the extension of Moore’s Law for decades.

That’s why we’re participating in the Blue-X Consortium, organized by EUV Litho Inc. As members of the Consortium, xLight will lead the Technical Working Group to enable those next-generation wavelengths.

Building the world’s most powerful Free Electron Lasers

Our Particle Accelerator Approach