ASML unveils EUV light source advance that could yield 50% more chips by 2030

2/23/2026 at 6:54:33 PM

This video is a really cool dive into EUV for the uninitiated (me) https://youtu.be/MiUHjLxm3V0?si=kEPSicC2WXYhcQ6L

by et1337

2/23/2026 at 8:00:34 PM

Or this video, which came out before Veritasium's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2482h_TNwg

by eddyg

2/23/2026 at 10:19:17 PM

I thought this video was a lot better than the Veritasium video. The Veritasium video was awkward. I think they tried to follow the formula from the (excellent) blue led video that performed so well, but it just didn't work.

by EnPissant

2/23/2026 at 8:16:39 PM

https://youtu.be/NGFhc8R_uO4

Or this presentation which came out way long ago.

by Hikikomori

2/23/2026 at 10:07:42 PM

This is worth the (re)watch every time it comes up.

by kristjansson

2/23/2026 at 8:38:09 PM

The thing I didn't understand after watching that video was why you need such an exotic solution to produce EUV light. We can make lights no problem in the visible spectrum, we can make xray machines easily enough that every doctors office can afford one, what is it specifically about those wavelengths that are so tricky.

by seanalltogether

2/23/2026 at 9:46:49 PM

There is such a thing as X-ray lithography, but it comes with significant challenges that make it not really worth it compared to EUV.

by zozbot234

2/23/2026 at 9:55:24 PM

I'd like to hear more about these challenges

by bpavuk

2/23/2026 at 10:14:17 PM

As I understand it, primarly because due to the high energy level of x-rays, light x-ray interacts very differently with materials[1]. Primarily they get absorbed, so very difficult to make mirrors or lenses, which are crucial for litography to redirect and focus the light on a specific miniscule point on the wafer.

The primary method is to rely grazing angle reflection, but that per definition only allows you a tiny deflection at a time, nothing like a parabolic mirror or whatnot.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_optics

by magicalhippo

2/23/2026 at 8:43:35 PM

It really is the specific wavelength. Higher or lower is easier. But euv has tricky properties which make it feasible for Lithography (although just barely it you have a look at the optics) but hard to produce with high intensities.

by on_the_train

2/23/2026 at 9:43:47 PM

Specifically, what makes x-rays easy to generate are these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristic_X-ray In essence, smashing electrons into atoms allows you to ionize the inner shell of an atom and when an electron drops down from an outer shell, the excess energy is shed as high-energy photons. This constrains the energy range of X-ray tubes ("smash electron into metal") to wavelengths well below 13.5nm.

(These emission lines are also what is being used in x-ray spectroscopy to identify elements)

by formerly_proven

2/23/2026 at 9:55:46 PM

You can also generate broad spectrum bremsstrahlung radiation easily, this is widely used for medical X-rays.

by s0rce

2/23/2026 at 8:54:22 PM

Any source to this? I am hearing this for the first time.

by YetAnotherNick

2/23/2026 at 9:56:21 PM

ITs easy to make X-rays, you just hit a metal target with electrons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_tube

by s0rce

2/23/2026 at 7:32:16 PM

The whole “exploding tiny drops of metal” in the middle of this is just Loony Toons. This machine is literally insane and two of the companies I am long-long on would be completely fucked without it.

by hinkley

2/23/2026 at 7:49:18 PM

You forgot WITH LASERS, and IN A VACUUM

by patmorgan23

2/23/2026 at 8:04:17 PM

Yes it was crazy when I first heard about it "wait what? they shoot it in mid-air?" and that was before I found out they did that like 30k times a second.

But now 100k times a second apparently. Humans are amazing.

by atonse

2/23/2026 at 8:23:16 PM

You have a machine that’s basically a clean room inside and one of the parts is essentially electrosputtering tin but then throwing all the tin away and using the EM pulse from the sputter to do work.

Oh and can you build it so it can run hundreds or thousands of hours before being cleaned? Thanks byyyyyyyyeeeeee!

by hinkley

2/23/2026 at 9:26:04 PM

The inside of those machines are far, far cleaner than the inside of any clean room ever entered by a human. They have to be molecularly clean.

by lelandbatey

2/23/2026 at 9:37:46 PM

Which isn't easy considering they explode tin droplets in the machine. I think that's the point the other commenter wanted to make.

by b3orn

2/23/2026 at 8:57:02 PM

> We are going to spray expensive stuff in an extremely fine and precise line. Then we're going to shoot a laser at each droplet.

< Why?!

> To make a better laser.

< Yes, of course you are.

> 100,000 times per second.

< [AFK, buying shares.]

by flowerthoughts

2/23/2026 at 9:04:02 PM

I have shares in one of their biggest customers, and one of their customer’s biggest customers.

We are quickly leaving the realm of dependent variables still looking anything like diversification.

by hinkley

2/23/2026 at 7:34:28 PM

Here's your link without the surveillance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiUHjLxm3V0

by culi

2/23/2026 at 8:08:59 PM

With slightly less surveillance

by skrebbel

2/23/2026 at 9:26:20 PM

try duck player

by lencastre

2/23/2026 at 7:51:28 PM

Okay this is weird.

> The key advancements in Monday's disclosure involved doubling the number of tin drops to about 100,000 every second, and shaping them into plasma using two smaller laser bursts, as opposed to today's machines that use a single shaping burst.

This is covered in that video. Did they let him leak their Q1 plans?

by hinkley

2/23/2026 at 10:29:08 PM

That has been covered before in other videos[0] that this is their roadmap to higher power, so I'm also not sure what they have announced now that wasn't previously announced.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXnrzS3aGeM

by hobofan

2/23/2026 at 7:32:01 PM

> The company's researchers have found a way to boost the power of the EUV light source to 1,000 watts from 600 watts now.

> "We see a reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts, and no fundamental reason why we couldn't get to 2,000 watts."

by xnx

2/23/2026 at 9:44:43 PM

The light power increase is even more impressive at 67%:

> The company's researchers have found a way to boost the power of the EUV light source to 1,000 watts from 600 watts now.

with more on the horizon:

> We see a reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts, and no fundamental reason why we couldn't get to 2,000 watts.

by tromp

2/23/2026 at 6:53:43 PM

So how small are individual components (e.g., transistors) nowadays? Presumably there's a lower limit: once you're a few atoms across, it seems that you can't go any smaller (?).

by throw0101a

2/23/2026 at 7:24:28 PM

Gates are about 30-50 nm wide, even though they're called '3nm' for marketing reasons.

by ahazred8ta

2/23/2026 at 8:40:44 PM

Metal pitch is 26nm. That means parallel wires can be placed 2 wavelengths apart with 13.5nm light.

by phkahler

2/23/2026 at 9:12:38 PM

Like free range chicken.

by penguin_booze

2/23/2026 at 9:16:18 PM

You only need to live in reasonable place for that phrase to have a proper meaning, across whole market from cheapest to most expensive.

by kakacik

2/23/2026 at 7:04:43 PM

This is about increasing output per machine via upgrades.

by whazor

2/23/2026 at 8:21:31 PM

some gates are only 10-14 nm wide, thats about 50 silicon atoms!

by cyptus

2/23/2026 at 7:24:16 PM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_nm_process

by ranger_danger

2/23/2026 at 7:59:43 PM

I still think we should have gone with average gates per square mm as a new yardstick. It would also make sense to the Numbers Go Up people.

by hinkley

2/23/2026 at 9:17:22 PM

It’s going to be quite funny if they can go below 40nm in gate pitch size, because they’ll need to call it 0nm.

by itopaloglu83

2/23/2026 at 9:21:48 PM

They are moving to angstroms, hence 18A for example.

by dogma1138

2/23/2026 at 7:30:13 PM

> SAN DIEGO, California

> to help retain the Dutch company's edge over emerging U.S. and Chinese rivals

Great news, but what a strange attempt to equate the U.S. and China in this and build a narrative. Cymer was founded in San Diego.

by onjectic

2/23/2026 at 7:44:14 PM

Yeah it's an interesting angle in the article. The EUV light source technology is completely designed, developed, and manufactured by Cymer in California, which is a US company that ASML acquired in 2013. If export control agreements were not in place then ASML would have never been permitted to acquire Cymer. And if they are not enforced then the US would almost certainly require ASML to sell Cymer back to US ownership, TikTok-style.

The reality is that it's American technology that is used in ASML machines so I don't know why the article tries to frame it like it's a competition.

by petcat

2/23/2026 at 10:35:32 PM

There is much more in an ASML machine, besides the UV source.

So the ASML machines combine technologies developed in various places, not only in USA, even if the UV source is indeed a critical component. While an ASML machine would not work without the UV source, it would also not work without many other critical optical and mechanical components.

If it were so easy to make a lithography machine when you have a UV source, Cymer would have remained an independent company or it would have been bought by a US company. Cymer has been bought by their only customer.

by adrian_b

2/23/2026 at 9:52:00 PM

Your take is also a bad one. No what asml builds is not American technology. Why asml succeeded is because they got tons of company’s and people to help them advance the technology of the chip industry. Yes it wouldn’t be possible without the Americans. But it would also not be possible without the Europeans, the Koreans, etc… what asml did was basically ask the technology leaders in each field to build their best product so that they can take their parts and assembly this awesome piece of technology.

by merb

2/23/2026 at 8:26:25 PM

Which American rival would that be anyway? I have not heard of any.

by ahartmetz

2/23/2026 at 8:38:49 PM

xLight is the promising new US competitor to Cymer. Lots of funding from the US CHIPS And Science Act. Founded by Dept. of Energy engineers who formerly worked on large-scale X-Ray systems and particle accelerators.

by petcat

2/23/2026 at 10:40:51 PM

Oh, alright. I was thinking of full lithography machines.

by ahartmetz

2/23/2026 at 8:42:04 PM

I think the Japanese are also working on potentially competing technology

by christkv

2/23/2026 at 7:25:15 PM

This is a steep increase of power to get out of a vacuum system that is highly sensitive to temperature changes.

by on_the_train

2/23/2026 at 7:26:08 PM

[flagged]

by pixelsub