It gets pretty hot inside an ASML EUV system – hotter than the surface of the sun, in fact. Discover the technology you could work on at ASML.
You might have heard of EUV lithography, a technology entirely unique to ASML. But did you know that it uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers?
This light occurs naturally in outer space. But to generate EUV light here on earth, our systems contain a laser-produced plasma (LPP) source.
Here’s how EUV light is created in an ASML system:
- Tiny molten tin droplets shoot from a generator at 70 meters per second.
- A low-intensity laser pulse flattens them into a pancake shape.
- A more powerful laser pulse – hotter than the surface of the sun at a temperature of about 500,000 K – vaporizes the tin pancakes. This creates a plasma that emits EUV light.
- To produce enough light to manufacture microchips, this process is repeated 50,000 times every second.
How does EUV work?
Explore inside an NXE lithography system
Light source
Optical column
Reticle
Vacuum chamber
Wafer handler
Wafer stage
Ready to work with laser precision?
In this video, Scott – who works in our research department – explains why we use EUV light and how it’s generated.
