ASML

ASML is a Dutch technology company that develops and manufactures lithography systems used to produce semiconductor chips. Its machines pattern chip designs onto silicon wafers using light.

Photolithography: A process that uses light and patterned masks to create microscopic features on a material. ASML’s machines are advanced tools for projecting chip patterns onto wafers.
Semiconductor wafer: A thin slice of semiconductor material on which integrated circuits are fabricated. ASML systems expose patterns onto these wafers during chip production.
Philips: A Dutch multinational company founded in 1891, active in electronics, health technology, and other fields. Philips helped establish ASML and contributed early lithography technology.
EUV lithography: A semiconductor patterning process that uses extreme ultraviolet light, typically at a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers. ASML commercialized EUV scanners for high-volume advanced chip manufacturing.
Semiconductor supply chain: The international network of firms and processes that supplies materials, equipment, design, and manufacturing for chips. ASML occupies a specialized, difficult-to-replace position within this network.
Extreme ultraviolet lithography: A chip-patterning technique that uses 13.5-nanometer light to print very small features. ASML’s EUV systems use this technique to pattern leading-edge chips.
Photomask: A patterned plate that controls where radiation reaches a photosensitive surface during lithography. The reticle in an ASML scanner carries the pattern to be printed.
ASM International: A Dutch semiconductor equipment company founded by Arthur del Prado in 1968. ASM International joined Philips in creating the venture that became ASML.
Deep ultraviolet lithography: A lithography approach that uses ultraviolet wavelengths longer than those used in EUV lithography. ASML’s DUV systems remain widely used, including for layers that do not require EUV.
United States export controls on China: Restrictions imposed by the United States on exports of specified technologies and goods to China. Export rules have shaped which ASML lithography systems can be sold to Chinese customers.

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