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The Extreme Engineering of ASML’s EUV Light Source

Asianometry

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  • Recommended by 11 people: 11 on Hacker News.

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

697K views4 years ago11 recommendations

HardwareCPUs and computer architectureElectronics

How ASML's extreme ultraviolet lithography machines use high-power lasers and tin droplets to generate the 13.5 nanometer light required for modern chips.

After 20+ years of development, extreme ultraviolet lithography has become a commercial reality. As I write these words, multi-million dollar machines from ASML use EUV light to create impossibly small patterns in wafers. This technological magic requires a powerful heart inside of it. And indeed, there is an amazing system driving ASML's $150 million lithography machine: The EUV Light Source. In this video, we are going to look at the lasers firing pulses at tin droplets to create the powerful, 13.5 nanometer wavelength light for our latest, greatest microprocessors. Links: - The Asianometry Newsletter: asianometry.com - Patreon: patreon.com/Asianometry - The Podcast: anchor.fm/asianometry - Twitter: twitter.com/asianometry

Why it's here

11 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a fascinating and detailed explanation of the mind-bending physics and engineering behind ASML's EUV light sources.

codeulikeon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed”

Because the EUV machines that ASML build are the most complex machines ever built by humans and getting all the bits to work properly takes decades of R+D e.g. watch this about the light source, its completely bonkers link to this video
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hajileon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Fusion “Breakthrough” Won’t Lead to Practical Fusion Energy”

…00M wouldn't even buy a handful of those machines and wouldn't come close to the many billions it has cost in the past 30+ years of research to reach the point where they are finally viable (it had been "a few months away" ever since the early 2000s). This video from Asianometry on EUV light sources is well worth the watch. It's pretty incredible. link to this video…
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pason Hacker News • Recommends

On “Spherical Tokamak Achieves Crucial Plasma Temperatures”

Anyone interested in the details should watch this video: link to this video (has the same graphics) without any hyperbole the 2-shot laser thing necessary to emit EUV is just mind bending.
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Agathoson Hacker News • Recommends

On “ASML EUV Lithography Machine Could Keep Moore’s Law on Track”

Two must watch videos about the whole process: link to this video link (Typed on a device made by this process, which I still don’t quite believe.)
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roeron Hacker News • Recommends

On “Compact electron accelerator reaches new speeds with nothing but light”

To add to this, here is a great video on some of the technical/physical challenges ASML had to solve for their EUV source: link to this video
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sllabreson Hacker News • Recommends

On “ASML looking to finally get ahead of Moore’s Law”

Cant answer the question and my knowledge is only from 'one interested' but from how long (~20 years) it took to build the current EUV source and how complicated the alternatives look this is for sure no easy feat. Can recommend 1 as the title say about the light source. Very interesting even for a non professional (and 2 as on high level overview of the machine and 3 as longer documentation inside ASML). 1 link to this video "The Extreme Engineering of ASML’s EUV Light Source" 2 link "The Extreme Physics Pushing Moore’s Law to the Next Level" 3 link "ASML's Secret: An exclusive view from inside the global semiconductor giant"
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pkayeon Hacker News • Recommends

On “TSMC ups Arizona investment from $12B to $40B with second semi fab”

…h and KLA. The costs are probably driven by extreme engineering requirements (temperature, pressure, corrosive chemicals, low contamination) and R&D costs to meet these requirements. The production volumes are not high either. Its not like they are building millions of these machines. Asianometry on YouTube is a good source for this kind of topic. link to this video…
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prewetton Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Why is TSMC so competitive in semiconductor fabrication?”

The etching process that uses a laser to blast a moving molten tin sphere to shape it so the next laser blast that vaporizes it produces parallel EUV light is pretty insane, too. See link to this video
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DHaldaneon Hacker News • Recommends

The article doesn't go into much detail on this, but the UV source using the hydrogen here is incredibly cool. To get the 13.5nm light they need, they use a 20kW CO2 laser to explode tin droplets into plasma that emits the correct wavelength. 50,000 droplets per second. And they use a smaller laser to first shape the droplet into a little dish shape that explodes better. Shown better in a video - link to this video
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NortySpockon Hacker News • Recommends

On “ASML EUV Lithography Machine Could Keep Moore’s Law on Track”

Twice. They have to hit the molten droplet twice . Once "gently" to deform it briefly into a concave shape, and the second, harder pulse to actually activate the droplet to emit extreme ultraviolet light Asianometry on EUV. Skip to 10m50s. link to this video
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chmod775on Hacker News • Recommends

On “ASML Aims for Hyper-NA EUV, Shrinking Chip Limits”

…few other companies even had incentive to attempt it themselves. Sure, other companies could eventually replace them, but you're not closing a 2-decade technology gap in an afternoon. 1 It's a bit insane, really. Vaporizing falling droplets of tin with two laser pulses 100,000 times a second to get just the right wavelength? Here's a good video: link to this video…
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eightysixfouron Hacker News • Mentions

On “Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed”

Knowing that you fire microdroplets of tin with a specific shape into a chamber at 50khz and hit it with two laser pulses is one thing, doing it is an entirely different one. How EUV works: link to this video
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rektideon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Gwern on the China (and Therefore Taiwan)”

Link seemingly should be to gwern's comment? link > TSMC fabbing only the start (!), now all ASML customer support† is gone (!!) not just EUV machines, on top of which all the American-citizen employees (a nontrivial fraction due to education/birth abroad) have halted work literally overnight (!!!), and overall what sounds like the collapse of Chinese semiconductors amidst a Chinese economy already showing serious signs of distress and little capacity to keep an industry on life-support indefinitely as they scramble to survive - It keeps going & going ... !!!! I am not so doom & gloom, largely because I see China as literally the only nation in the world that has the willpower, top down co…
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zbobet2012on Hacker News • Mentions

On “US scientists boost clean power hopes with fusion energy breakthrough”

All of the problems you just described are solved for in EUV lightsources for lithography on chips at 100khz or more. These are less hard then you make them sound. link to this video Probably the hardest part is making sure the droplet is cost effective enough that we care. Again, to op's point, this is an incredibly shallow analysis. The question I would be pushing towards is: What are the hardest remaining engineering problems? How likely are we to overcome them? At the end of that process will it be a cost competitive outcome?
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36870059on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Stone Knives and Bear Skins – There is no money in tools”

ASML's crown jewels are not mere "tools", they are machines . It is bleeding edge technology and entirely irrelevant to a general discussion of economics of 'tool makers'. link to this video
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bsderon Hacker News • Mentions

On “China Aims to Use Particle Accelerators to Build Chips and Evade EUV Sanctions”

There were also issues getting the light sufficiently collated from a synchrotron. This Asianometry talks about the engineering: link to this video Now, China may decide that it doesn't need throughput and that will definitely help. Having a facility that can simply do it even if it can't do it at speeds that a commercial fab would accept would be fine for strategic reasons. However, it will be 20+ years of engineering. And that's just the light source . The optics, for example, are a whole other engineering project.
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