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Zeiss is making the optics, ASML is making the integrated EUV machine.
by the8472 6y ago
Zeiss is making the optics, ASML is making the integrated EUV machine.
- cma 6y agoAh, I though ASML are the mirrors. So they make essentially the light source?
- the8472 6y agoASML sells the complete EUV lithography machine. Zeiss is one of their partners that supplies the optics. Trumpf makes the pulsed lasers which turn tin droplets into plasma which then produces the EUV light. They say they have many more research and supply partners, but those are the ones that I've found mentioned by name in press releases.
- cma 6y agoDo they design the actual tin droplet plasma chamber thing, or are they essentially a systems integrator from a bunch of suppliers putting it all together into their overall design to their specs?
- the8472 6y agoThis question doesn't make sense, both options involve designing the thing. Anyway, it's not even about designing it. The technology had to be invented first. It would be crazy to use exploding metal drops in a vacuum chamber where you want to manufacture microchips if there were any other options but there were zero options before. There are few applications of EUV in general, and currently only one at those luminosity levels. So R&D is a big component here, not just manufacturing. And even if we only look at the manufacturing part, this isn't some "simple" vacuum chamber gadget either, only ~30 machines were built last year and they cost more than 100M$ each. For comparison, four of these cost as much as one Wendelstein-7X. This is more of a big, barely productized science project shipped out as soon as it works just good enough for the chip manufacturers.
- cma 6y agoIt could be some module within the vacuum chamber that has other uses and was already made by someone else for e.g. scientific experiment uses or something; I'm just asking if that part is made in house or is from another supplier.
- baybal2 6y agoCymer makes the light source. Now it is owned by ASML. Japanese are quite behind in the race, with only <100W source being demonstrated.
- bicolao 6y agoDo these guys also need to invest a lot on research for new node processes, or is that just on fabs like TSMC, Intel...?
- totalZero 6y agoYes. You can see this just from the size of the machines, which get much larger with every die shrink.
- raverbashing 6y agoAnd just to be clear the optics are not at all trivial when you're talking about EUV and the precisions required I'm not sure if the lenses are even transparent in the visible range but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't.