"Building an energy-efficient EUV laser with tenfold improvements over today's technology will drive the next era of Moore's Law, accelerating fab productivity, while developing a critical domestic capability," said Pat Gelsinger, Executive Chairman of the Board, xLight, and General Partner, Playground Global.
Note that in deals like the one announced between xLight and the U.S. DoC, an LOI is a non-binding agreement in principle: it signals that both sides intend to move forward, but it does not obligate the government to release funds or the company to receive them, though it means that the government has finished a preliminary evaluation and selected the company for potential funding. xLight will now work with the U.S. DoC and teams at the Albany Nanotech Complex, so expect further disclosures in the coming months. In parallel, the company will continue its joint development work across the Department of Energy lab network.
xLight is developing a FEL-based light source that can be used to deliver coherent EUV radiation directly to existing ASML wafer scanners. The approach is significantly different from LPP-based light sources that ASML (well, its U.S.-based Cymer unit) once developed for its current litho tools.
xLight gets powerful FEL by first using a particle accelerator, which speeds up electrons to very high velocities with radiofrequency (RF) and magnetic fields; these fast particles are then fed into an FEL, where the electrons from the accelerator pass through undulators that create a periodic magnetic field and, as a result, generate coherent, high-intensity light beams featuring required wavelengths (13.5nm in case of EUV, though scalable to 2nm for soft X-ray). The FEL is housed in a separate facility adjacent to the fab (i.e., not inside the cleanroom). Once EUV light is generated, it is piped via a network of specialized grazing-incidence mirrors with turning stations to multiple ASML scanners, up to 20 per FEL unit. This light then enters the scanner's illuminator, where it is shaped and directed onto the wafer.
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Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/u-s-government-awards-gelsinger-backed-euv-developer-xlight-with-usd150-million-in-federal-incentives-company-to-develop-new-electron-based-light-source-for-lithography-tools#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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