Japan and the Netherlands agreed "to tighten restrictions on the export of chip manufacturing technology to Chinese companies."

"ASML is the most critical company affected by the Netherlands' restrictions. It's the only company in the world that produces so-called ultraviolet lithography machines, which are critical to the production of advanced semiconductors. CNBC previously reported that the company was already unable to ship its advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machine to China but that it could still ship older deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) machines."

"On the Japanese side, the restrictions are expected to impact companies such as Nikon and Tokyo Electron."

Japan and the Netherlands join US with tough chip controls on China

#solidstatelife #semiconductors #euv #asml #exportrestrictions #geopolitics

Japan and the Netherlands join US with tough chip controls on China

In an attempt to stop China producing advanced chips domestically.

What ASML has next after EUV. ASML ("Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography") being the world's biggest chip manufacturing equipment provider, and EUV being "extreme ultraviolet" -- lithography using extremely short wavelengths of light. ASML already has basic EUV systems working, and companies are using them to manufacture chips. What's next?

It's all about the NA. "NA" stands for numerical aperture. The "numerical aperature" tells you the range of angles over which a lens or other optical system can emit or receive light. He illustrates this with "light cones" in the video which visually illustrates from which angles light can strike the surface of the semiconductor. The larger the NA, the larger the range of angles.

He uses the term "pitch" without defining it. In semiconductor lithography, the "half pitch" is generally the smallest feature size that can be etched on the chip. If you wanted two wires next to each other, you'd need a half pitch for each wire width and another half pitch for the gab between them. Therefore the distance from the edge of one wire to the corresponding edge of the wire next to it would be two half pitches -- in other words, a full pitch. So "pitch" refers to the distance between two wires on the chip.

What ASML has next after EUV

#solidstatelife #lithography #euv #asml

Hackaday Links: January 2, 2022

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Hackaday Links: January 2, 2022

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