The hottest thing about ASML machines
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.
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.
