[Secret of ASML's success: The US EUV LLC alliance supports ASML and beats Nikon! 】The success of
ASML is inseparable from two things:
The first thing: when the 193nm light source breaks through, it encounters a technical bottleneck when it comes to 157nm light source technology again. At that time, TSMC’s engineer Lin Benjian proposed the principle of “water energy shortens the wavelength of light” instead of using a traditional dry lithography machine, but immersion lithography. That is, with a 193-nanometer light source, after passing through an aqueous medium, the wavelength is changed through refraction, and a wavelength of 157 nanometers can be obtained. When other lithography machine companies rejected this solution, ASML accepted it. In 2004, ASML produced the first prototype of the immersion lithography machine, which beat Nikon.
Second: ASML joins the "Lithography Machine Alliance". In the same period, in order to break through the lithography technology. The US Department of Energy led the establishment of the EUV LLC alliance with Intel, Motorola, AMD, IBM and other companies. Betting on extreme ultraviolet technology. Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, and Lawrence Berkeley's three major laboratories under the Department of Energy also bring together technologies in multiple fields, including physics, chemistry, nuclear weapons, semiconductor industry, supercomputing, and so on. After the breakthrough of the light source system of the
lithography machine, companies still need to apply it to products. In Nikon and ASML, the United States believes that after Nikon has absorbed sophisticated technology, it will overtake the United States in the future. In the end, only ASML joined the LLC Alliance.
Of course, the United States will not simply let ASML join the EUV LLC alliance. ASML must establish factories and R&D centers in the United States, and also ensure that 55% of future parts will need to be purchased from the United States. And it is regularly regulated by the United States.
general comment:
ASML's secrets of success are diversified. The US EUV LLC alliance supports ASML and overpowers Nikon, which is one of them. Today, the market rate of ASML EUV lithography machines is 100%, which is inseparable from the credit of the LLC alliance.
