Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography
Chip patterns are printed with light, a little like projecting a photo onto a silicon wafer. EUV machines use extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers, made by hitting tiny drops of molten tin with lasers 50,000 times a second, so they can print far finer patterns than older machines.
ASMLHow far from your life: It is probably already in your life.
Company-reportedFrom lab to your life
Why it’s on step 5
- 1Lab discovery
- 2Working prototype
- 3Real-world testing
- 4Approved or on sale
- 5Everyday life
The rule
Widely used: in products or treatments that reach millions of people, or sold in ordinary shops.
- TSMC said N7+, the industry's first commercially available process using EUV, was delivering customer products to market in high volume. TSMC, 7 Oct 2019
The short version
What you need to know
- Why it matters
Its shorter wavelength is what lets chipmakers print the nanometer-scale features of today's most advanced chips.
TSMC, 7 Oct 2019- How small
The light it prints with has a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers.
ASML- Is it really nano?
Truly nano
Its whole job is printing features measured in nanometers.
TSMC, 7 Oct 2019- Where you’ll find it
Used to make the most advanced chips in phones, computers and AI data centers since 2019.
TSMC, 7 Oct 2019- Who’s behind it
ASML, the only maker
On the record
Every step, dated
Newest first. Company-reported means the only source so far is the company itself.
- On the record
SK hynix finished assembling ASML's next-generation High-NA EUV machine, the Twinscan EXE:5200B, at its M16 fab in Icheon, South Korea, a sign it will soon be used in volume production.
Bits&Chips, 3 Sept 2025 - Widely usedCompany-reported
TSMC said N7+, the industry's first commercially available process using EUV, was delivering customer products to market in high volume.
TSMC, 7 Oct 2019
Who makes it
The companies
- ASMLNasdaqASML
The only maker of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, used to print the smallest features on advanced chips.
We track:EUV lithography
Sources
Where every line comes from
Each source with the passage, word for word, that backs what we wrote.
- ASML
But did you know that it uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers?
- TSMC, 7 Oct 2019
is better able to print the nanometer-scale features of advanced technology designs.
- Bits&Chips, 3 Sept 2025
DRAM manufacturer SK Hynix has announced that it has completed assembly of ASML's Twinscan EXE:5200B
More in Chips and computing
- Gate-all-around nanosheet transistorsStep 4 · On saleA transistor is a switch: a gate turns the flow of current through a channel on and off.
- Nanoimprint lithography for chipsStep 4 · On saleInstead of projecting a circuit pattern with light, nanoimprint lithography presses a mask carrying the pattern into a coating on the wafer, like a stamp.
- Carbon nanotube transistorsStep 2 · PrototypeCarbon nanotubes are sheets of carbon atoms rolled into tubes.
- Atom-thin 2D semiconductor chipsStep 1 · LabSome materials can be made just a few atoms thick, like sheets of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2).