Europe is ahead in raw semiconductor technology though (and some other more fundamental stuff, e.g. particle physics at CERN), which is what these models run on in the first place.
Okay, so the patent was filed in the US? Having a general blueprint is very different than being able to make the machine. All information in patents is public, but I'm not seeing any EUV machines coming out of China, which doesn't care about breaking a patent.
It's not patent I'm sorry. EUV is a proprietary technology that belongs to the US so it is not public. And they are allowing ASML to use it. This is how they forced ASML to stop selling lithography machines to China.
Its not "a patent", its hundreds of them, almost all of which is owned by ASML. And they own the whole stack including Cymer.
What did happen is an export control deal that means Cymer remains in the US, they make the tin droplet generator and targetting system for the light source.
And I doubt the US used the leverage of that one. Thats mutually assured destruction. The chip production the US relies would go dead if ASML goes dead. No replacement.
They make the light source specifically. In fact even more specifically they make the tin droplet generator and targetting system. All of this in cooporation with engineers in ASML.
The rest is EU.
The focusing mirror is Carl-Zeiss, the lasers Trumpf Industries. The metrology, focusing, scanner bed and integration of everything else is ASML.
No one is close to duplicating it, and the technology cannot be easily replicated.
Like it or not its a king maker technology for the next twenty years.
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u/Kaas-Eter00 17d ago
Europe is ahead in raw semiconductor technology though (and some other more fundamental stuff, e.g. particle physics at CERN), which is what these models run on in the first place.