Global Race to Build the World’s Crucial Machine

Eindhoven, Netherlands – ASML currently dominates the lithography machine market essential for chip manufacturing. However, several companies are vying to reduce reliance on ASML through the development of their own systems.

Virtually every sector involved with high-end processing chips, ranging from computer CPUs to AI training GPUs, is dependent on ASML. The Dutch company is the sole provider of the lithography tools necessary to produce chips at a sub-5nm process.

Modern microprocessors contain billions of transistors, where a nanometer (nm) measures transistor size. Smaller sizes allow for more transistors on a chip, boosting speed and efficiency. For example, TSMC’s 5 nm process can pack roughly 173 million transistors per square millimeter.

ASML’s flagship product is the massive extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine, a 150-ton behemoth, costing $380 million, with a footprint as big as two Airbus A320s. However, this places ASML at the center of a global semiconductor battle. The U.S. has been working to prevent the Dutch firm from selling lithography machines to Chinese manufacturers, aiming to stall China’s technological progress.

Alternative Approaches to Chip Manufacturing

For years, China has been restricted from acquiring EUV machines and has utilized imported DUV systems. By combining multiple patterns and splitting the etching into phases, they can print features half the size. This increases complexity, slows production, and raises costs.

China is also developing its lithography tools, investing billions in domestic alternatives. SMEE is reportedly making progress with a machine capable of producing 28 nm chips using DUV technology.

“Developing an EUV system presents a completely different challenge,” notes Jeff Koch of SemiAnalysis. “Beyond mastering EUV light, China needs to establish a vast supply chain like ASML’s, involving over 5,000 specialized suppliers.”

Other firms are accelerating their solutions. Canon is betting on Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL), which “stamps” circuit patterns directly onto wafers, much like a printing press. Theoretically, NIL can create chips with nanometer precision in a compact, lower-cost machine compared to ASML’s EUV.

In NIL, a master mask with etched circuit patterns is created using an electron beam. Liquid resin droplets are applied to the wafer before the mask stamps the pattern. Ultraviolet light hardens the resin, forming the circuit patterns. This process repeats for each chip layer. Canon estimates their method costs 40% less than comparable ASML systems.

However, challenges remain before NIL can be used for mass production. The liquid resin application can cause errors, ruining wafers. As chips are built layer by layer, each layer’s patterns must align precisely to avoid nano-level errors that break electrical connections. Additionally, the number of wafers produced per hour is far lower than ASML’s 180.

NIL has found success outside semiconductor manufacturing, particularly in smartphone displays and high-precision components. It’s also entering memory chip production, where higher error rates are acceptable compared to logic chips.

“NIL can coexist with EUV lithography, handling cost-effective production where possible while pushing towards finer details in the future,” says Iwamoto Kazunori of Canon’s optical division.

Besides Canon, Nikon has lithography solutions. In the early 1990s, they supplied lithography equipment to Intel. However, as ASML commercialized EUV lithography, Nikon fell behind. Recently, they are reportedly promoting i-Line, a technology first commercialized in 1990, to design chip manufacturing machines for Chinese firms.

Last August, the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) announced an EUV lithography device that significantly reduces semiconductor manufacturing costs for 7 nm and smaller processes. Developed by Professor Tsumoru Shintake, the device is simpler and cheaper than ASML’s products. If mass-produced, it could reshape the chip manufacturing equipment industry.

Earlier this year, the U.S. invested nearly a billion dollars in the EUV Accelerator center to develop advanced high-numerical aperture EUV machines. The center will provide access to standard EUV NA this year and EUV High-NA in 2026 for members of the U.S. National Semiconductor Technology Center (NTSC) and Natcast.

The Power of ASML’s System

ASML’s most advanced machine uses high-NA EUV technology. It works by firing 50,000 molten tin droplets into a vacuum chamber. Each droplet undergoes two impacts: first, a weak laser pulse flattens it, then a powerful laser vaporizes it. This turns each droplet into a hot plasma, reaching nearly 220,000 degrees Celsius (40 times hotter than the sun’s surface) and emitting extreme ultraviolet light.

This light is reflected by a series of ultra-smooth mirrors with imperfections measured in trillionths of a meter. The mirrors focus the light onto a mask containing the chip’s circuit design. Finally, the rays reflect onto a silicon wafer coated with a photosensitive chemical to print the chip.

While complex, ASML’s tool operates on principles similar to an old slide projector: light passes through a stencil to project an image onto a surface. Lithography tools depend heavily on the light’s wavelength. Just as a finer brush allows for finer details, shorter wavelengths enable smaller patterns.

Moreover, a microchip, or transistor die, is covered in layers of copper wires carrying data and energy. An advanced processor can pack over 100 billion transistors, containing over 70 layers and over 100 km of wiring on a silicon piece the size of 1.5 postage stamps.

Before EUV, ASML pioneered deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines with wavelengths from 248 to 193 nm, creating features as small as 38 nm. However, EUV with a wavelength of 13.5 nm or even 8 nm makes things far more complex. EUV light is absorbed by air, glass, and most materials, requiring a vacuum and specialized reflective mirrors. ASML says it spent two decades perfecting the method of firing lasers at molten tin droplets to create this “elusive beam.”

Despite having the most advanced technology, ASML aims to shrink the wavelength further to produce chips with even smaller process nodes. This means more mirrors, increasing weight and energy consumption. Shorter wavelengths also create noise challenges, according to Yasin Ekinci of the Paul Scherrer Institute, a Swiss semiconductor research center.

By Bao Lam