*@**1:38** We made a mistake and the map of the Netherlands was not to scale. Face palm moment* Visit brilliant.org/Newsthink/ to get started learning math, science, and computer science for FREE, and the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription.

In ASMLs video about their new machine, one of the engineers said the lenses by Carl Zeiss used in the machine are so flat, that if the lens were scaled up to the size of the USA, the largest bump would be the size of a dust particle. That's just insane

I grew up in Eindhoven and studied at the technical university. Everyone knows ASML here. One of my physics professors once said that the speed of progress in the world gets set here in Veldhoven by ASML, since they set the benchmark for the fastest chips.

I believe a short history lesson is called for here. ASML bought out a company called Silicon Valley Group (SVG), which had previously purchased the Microlithography division from Perkin-Elmer who had originally developed the technology in Wilton Connecticut, USA. How do I know this? I worked for SVG for 11 years, and my father worked for all 3 corporations for 46 years, and was one of the research and development engineers who made it all happen. In fact, my father was one of the physicists who cracked the deep UV problem in the 90's while working for SVG in Wilton, CT. The manufacturing facilities are continuing to operate in Wilton Connecticut, USA where most of the R&D still occurs.

In The Netherlands, ASML is often mentioned in the news, always described as a ‘chip maker’. So I thought it was a small sort of Intel, making chips for some niche markets. This video completely changes that perspective. I wouldn’t call them a ‘chip maker’ at all! They’re the company making the machines that make chips, something different entirely! It’s like calling JCB a building company…

Wow I didn’t know ASML was that big, I live in the Netherlands, and I am a CNC lathe worker for a local company. I make some simple pieces for ASML not thinking it was that big of a company. Sick!!

Started working on EUV stuff back around 2014, 9 years later I'm involved in it's vacuum control system design. Been an interesting ride so far, and the changes never stop as fine tuning in the processes get worked out requiring different controls, valves, gases, volume, evacuation, abatement, etc.... most fun job I've ever had,

Please note: ASML advanced EUV lithography uses mirrors instead of lenses, as EUV light cannot pass any lense material. For the slightly less advanced technology, DUV, lenses are used.

A friend of mine works there. He had a PhD in physics. There is A LOT of high tech companies around Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and it's not a coincidence that the Eindhoven University of Technology exists.

I do not remember when a story fascinated me like this one. To be the only one in the world manufacturing something, and to not get copied, is really unbelievable.

Great, now make a video about Zeiss lenses that ASML uses in their lithography machines. Fun fact both Zeiss and philips helped in building ASML as a company.

And the heart of ASML lithography machine is lenses from Carl Zeiss

I saw an ASML Air Frieght Crate slipping off the Elevator while unloading at the airport. Luckily they are shipped in 5 Crates (each machine doesn't all come in one part) and there wasn't much physical damage but there was a €90 million cost and 6 month delay just to readjust the accuracy tolerance parameters of the lasers. Crazy.

I work at a company that makes a part of the machine and its realy cool to see what kind of stuff they do with it

My radio when I was a kid had tubes so when I read these comments they are Latin to me but I am blown away by the progress that has been made in just my 86 years. My hat is off to the scientific community and let’s pray that all these accomplishments go toward the good of mankind 🙏

For an explanation of how the photolithography works, basically: 1. 300mm wafer is put on a chuck, it is held down by suction. 2. a photosensitive chemical is laid down. The thickness is determined by pour rate and rpm of spinning wafer which distributes and sheds any excess. 3. quick bake of photosensitive chemical. 4. loaded into photolithog machine. The ones I used were Nikons. But I remember having ASMLs next door. A UV light is generated using mercury arc lamps, the image is shrunk a different amount, (2x, 4, 5x) using a lens. The image is serially burned into the wafer, called step and repeat. This is why you see the same pattern on the wafer. 5. Once done the wafer has its images developed. I remember using HMDS hexamethadisilazane (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bis(trimethylsilyl)amine). Then I believe it is baked again. 6. then off to CMP(cold metal polish), where they grind off the excess to expose either the circuit wires or the spaces those wires will go. There were many layers to the chips, each one requiring the blue print of the circuit to be photolithogged on. the circuit layers had a M prefix, like M1, M2 etc, interconnecting(so perpendicular to the chip surface would be called V1, V2 etc (for via, road in latin), then there were random names for the n-wells and p-wells. 20 years ago or so I worked at an IBM 200mm line in Vermont. Since then it has been bought by the middle eastern fab company called Global Semiconductor. I still remember enough to explain it apparently but forgot enough to not remember the trauma of working 12 hour shifts lol. PS Nikon was a competitor

Great video Cindy - nice work. Hope to see more from you in future.

This documentary content is so beautiful, I could barely hold my tears back. A BIG THANK YOU.

The fastest chips in the world are from Croky. A Dutch chips brand. They come in different flavours, personally I prefer 'Paprika' the most. They are so fast that once I open the bag it's empty in a minute or two. Now, that's fast!

Thanks for doing a video on this. I’ve heard about the Dutch company but this was very informative. Great video.

there are a tons of "how it's made" videos, but it's not very common to find video about who made the machine factory uses, this is good one. Wish there are more.

I lived near ASML for many years and I never knew it produced something so important. They don’t talk much about it on the Netherlands.

If Netherland ever stop selling their most advanced machine to Canada, we will stop selling them maple syrup. 🦫🇨🇦

fun fact: The EUV lasers, that are employed inside the lithography machines of ASML are made by a german company called TRUMPF. It is the only company world wide that can build these lasers.

1:37 You just gave us Belgium and half of western Germany 😁 Thank you

It's more concerning that just 1 location has the ability to produce such a vital piece of equipment.

ASML’s San Diego teams & subsidiaries (Cymer) help lead their lithography program. Very proud as a San Diegan to contribute to this incredible story out of the Netherlands.

Ha! My life is not ruled by microchips. Yes I do miss my wifi when its occasionally down but it doesn't affect my basic survival. my electricity source would be troubled but I have a wood burning stove that can be used for small scale cooking. I am lucky to live in rural southern europe so would even have access to locally produced vegetables in local small shops. I do keep dried beans and lentils in the cupboard. I already make my own bread. But I am old so grew up before the days of fridges in the home. Before tv. And have shelves full of books that need reading and re reading. Life would revert to that of my childhood but I would miss the radio. That reminds me. I need to plant some tomato seeds and sort my patio planters to make room for some veg.

I work in the Photo (Photolithography Dept) at Texas Instruments. Our fab is full of ASML machines. DUV’s are our fastest tools, where I-Line tools are slower (typically an older-style, thicker wafers, but still important to the supply chain.)

I was so confused at what was happening at 1:38. The zoom on Netherland makes it looks like they invaded Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Germany all at the same time.

Beautiful video. Your voice, pace, content…perfect. Keep up the great work.

Absolutely fascinating information, thank you.

Absolutely fascinating. Thank you.

Almost every chips made with 7 or 3 nanometer technology are use for cellphone, tablet or high end graphics (better known as gaming). Most of the automotive and general appliance use typically 28 nanometer technology because it's much cheaper and especially because it's much more robust in a variety of harsh environment. The Russian and Chinese military and space industry also use widely the 28 nanometer chips or bigger, in combination with special hardening technologies against electronic warfare and cosmic radiation.

Great story I loved you glossed over every aspect of it. Amazing

I feel like the manufacturing manual for that machine is one of the most protected non-government documents in the world

It was about three years ago when I saw a video about ASML and it's Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography technology and when I found out there isn't a single entity in the universe that has this technology I immediately realized the gravity of the situation. I also told my friends who invest to check this company out, because they will be the most important and underappreciated company in this space by far for a long time. I remember the video I saw about them was aptly named "the most important company you have never heard of"

I've been working on a subsystem of the ASML NXE systems since 2012 and it's fun to see it going from something nobodies ever heard of to being much more widely known, in the news and recognized as the technological tour-de-force that it is.

It's great to watch👍

Thanks!, Nicely done.

This was the most seamless transition to a Brilliant AD I've seen so far

I used to work for FedEx in Veldhoven and you wouldn't believe how many man sized packages they ship out daily. its insane!

Straight to the point. Awesome!

An Absolutely Amazing and informative video! Well done!

This is the reason why helping companies High Value Technology Industries is essential to the growth of a country

ASML is the world' s most important company Source: ASML bro 😎

very interesting vid, thankyou!

what is more impressive about ASML is that their stronghold in EUV lithography is not because of a patent advantage. It's because it's DAMN hard to build a machine like that. They know how to do business.

ASML just got thrown into the spotlight after the chip crunch. I remember reading about their EUV machines which were used at TSMC's fabs and then suddenly they are on the news and everything. Also should've added Carl Zeiss and imec to the list.

so interesting, good job

They have an ASML facility here in the US in Connecticut. Drive past it sometimes. Further down the road is the main US Breitling watch repair facility.

I have actually made quite some parts for this machine. Never got to see what it was used for though.

I love how the world’s most powerful chip manufacturing machine is built by scientists who use Lenovo ThinkPad 2:39. It’s a laptop that transcends humanity. Edit: Time stamp

so i never knew asml was that big, cycled past it many times and always thought it was just like some small dutch computer company

I live close to asml and seeing how much they are growing true the years is amazing

Wonderful example of ingenuity in action !!!

I work at a company that supplies ASML with electric cabinets that serve as controllers for those EUV machines. Each EUV machine uses 1-2 of our cabinets. We make 7 a week. So only in the past year ASML's production line increased by about 300 new EUV machines. This is an outstanding pace of growth.

As someone studying Mechanical Engineering in Eindhoven (basically where ASML is), every single day I hear about it but do notice outside the Netherlands (and even within) it’s not that known. Glad to see it recognise as the absolute beast of a company that it is!

I always wanted to know how costly is a clean room like forever… is so cool..

Excellent video sir. Thanks.

I should get back into the semiconductor capital industry. For few years, I was a technical writer and illustrator creating and editing work instructions to build DUV (Deep Ultraviolet Light) lithography machines for Cymer, a division of ASML. I made a lot of hay with that experience and worked for the Intel Ocotillo factory in south Chandler.

I study mechanical engineering pretty close too where ASML is located basically all of our courses have some sort of ASML reference. Our study association is sponsored by them. We learn their much more expensive and less widely used version of CAD software(which I must admit is pretty good). It’s incredible how much influence they have

Fun fact: Part of ASML's earlier success came from (allegedly) violating Nikon patents (Nikon was the previous leader in high end lithography equipment). Nikon ultimately settled several lawsuits for what now seems like a small amount, but they do effectively get royalties from some of ASML's activities.

Thanks for sharing valuable information

The world isn’t coming to a end without the smallest process. We can get along just fine with larger nm wafers

Even before I clicked the video I KNEW it had to be ASML. It’s crazy how reliant we are on their tech.

As a dutch person, i am proud of this video.

It is not the only company that produce photography

I'm quite fascinated by small countries that are powerful. Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Uruguay etc...

I work in a separated company of the company Carl Zeiss in Jena and I'm proud to say that we're the only ones that can make the metrology that's built into THIS lithography machine. This sayed, ASML can only build their machines because of our products. :)

50k/sec,how anything can happen that many times in one second,cant imagine.

I'm an engineering student from South Africa, I personally know at least 7 people from my university who have all moved to Eindhoven to work for ASML in the past year.

This is the most important Dutch company, and located 10 miles from where I live. Its a massive giant in the chip industry.

My deepest respect for all those engineers, designers, technicians and others who were there from the beginning constructing this marvel.

I just to live across FICO Tooling in Herwen. Many workers and also customers visited our diner ‘t Hoekje😅. Nice to see how it went on, the factory in Herwen is gone.

I drive past this building twice a week, and I didn't even know it was such an important company.

It’s made by ASML but to be accurate, it’s really the product of transatlantic and Japanese semiconductor industry that develops the technology for the lithography machine. Asianometry has a great series of videos on ASML and EUV lithography explaining the intricacies of the parties involved.

1:39 ASML machines are for sure more accurate than your map of the Netherlands 😄

Your advice helps me minimize risks and increase profits.

Majority of the chips that go into fridges and microcontroller electronics do not need to be fabricated using ASML's EUV technology, most can be fabbed using 40nm process or 28nm process, for instance, TSMC fabs the ESP32 LX6 which is quite a bit more capable than a lot of the controllers in both industrial and consumer products using their 40nm process which is only patterned through a DUV 193nm ArF system. EUV is dedicated towards low volume, high margins devices, namely modern computing solutions. China already is capable of domestic DUV patterning, although it isn't clear if they are using ArF or if it's KrF or Hg, which is capable of getting down to 14nm pretty easily, but China hasn't lost access to ASML nor Nikon DUV machines.

ASML is amazing, but it took hundreds of published papers from researchers around the world to develop the 13.5nm lasers modern lithography uses. It's absolutely astounding the technology actually works. Probably just two steps less complex than getting nuclear fusion to work. 😳

Refrigerators, cars, air conditioners all worked just fine before micro-chips ever came into existence.

One of the biggest employers in my area. They are a real nice company to work.

I had no idea this Dutch company was so important. Very interesting 🧐👍🏻

The entire process can't happen without many insanely specialized building blocks. This is only one piece of the puzzle

Interesting too see both administrations effects on chinese and foreign lithography

Great information!

amazing video.Thanks

I didn't know they were Dutch, but the second I saw the title I knew it could only be a fab machine.

Hi from the Netherlands. People know us for our weed, red light district, cheese and bicycles. We also invented the microscope, WiFi, birth control pills for woman, DVDs, the stock market, perfected water management, are leaders in greenhouse harvesting and we're sorry for VOC times. We're the best English speaking non-english country in Europe, our people are one of the tallest and we know it. Does it make us a little arrogant? Sure, but we earned that right. Did I mention our smart infrastructure and incredible roads? Oh well. We're awesome.

My dad works there and i think he worked on 1:22 this part of the machine that is a shutter to the light

There was once a lithography machine manufacturer more advanced for EUV than ASML. The first commercial EUV micro-stepper was built just outside of Oxford, in the UK. ASML allegedly wanted too much money to develop it, and were concentrating their research on 193nm immersion technology, (which we also delivered to customers first) so the company I worked for was contracted to develop a 13nm micro-stepper for substantially less, which we did. Sadly, the budgetary constraints of the follow on project (an actinic EUV mask inspection tool) effectively killed the company, and a paper in the teens said this set back the EUV lithography industry for a decade, all because our customers weren't prepared to put in the investment needed to follow the project through to completion. That was years of my life, and that of my colleagues, wasted.

Chinese engineers are brilliant. They will get there in a decade or so.

The photolithography machines manufactured by ASML are used in the production of computer chips. In these machines, patterns are optically imaged onto a silicon wafer that is covered with a film of light-sensitive material (photoresist). This procedure is repeated dozens of times on a single wafer. The photoresist is then further processed to create the actual electronic circuits on the silicon. The optical imaging that ASML's machines deal with is used in the fabrication of nearly all integrated circuits, and as of 2010, ASML has 67 percent of the worldwide sales of lithography machines,[3] with the competition consisting of Ultratech, Canon and Nikon.

Both Canon and Nikon make lithography equipment and are direct competitors with ASML.

Very insightful -

I is a clever way to give China a massive push to develop their own machines.

China will put effort to copy these 100 000 parts and reverse engineering the machine, you can be sure!

Huawei is producing NOW better chips than anything made with ASML machines.

i am a netherlands person. and i know a person that works by ASML and he is a GENIUS