Europe to the rescue. Production will increase by as much as 50%

Semiconductor industry is entering another phase of the boom, this time driven not by consumer electronics producers, but primarily by design companies layouts for AI centers. As a result, major players such as TSMCthey have been facing for months lack of production capacity. Factory expansion is ongoing, but it is a costly and time-consuming process. Luckily There is another groundbreaking solution on the horizon.

Dutch ASMLkey supplier EUV lithography machinesworking on increasing the power of the light source in their systems. According to reports from Reuters, the company managed to increase the power from 600 W to even 1000 W. In practice, this will increase the number of processed silicon wafers from 220 to 330 per hour. Most importantly, the increase in efficiency is to occur without a proportional increase in production costs.

If these assumptions are confirmed, we are talking about an increase in efficiency of over 50% in less than a decadewithout the need to build new cleanrooms or install additional, expensive systems. This is a scenario that could significantly alleviate current supply chain bottlenecks and improve the availability of the most advanced integrated circuits.

Of course, it will be crucial to implement the new solution in existing factories. ASML offers its customers modernization packages to increase efficiency without replacing the entire machine. Older but still popular models, such as NXE:3400C or NXE:3400D, encountered thermal limitations at higher powers.

The Dutch company has had a dominant position in this industry for years, but the pressure is growing. China invests huge resources in developing its own technologiesand new players appear on the market. These include, among others: American startup Substratewho is working on an alternative approach based on the use of shorter wavelength X-rays generated by a particle accelerator.