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Japan on edge of EUV lithography chip-making revolution

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has designed a new type of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment that could significantly

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has designed a new type of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment that could significantly reduce the cost to produce 7nm and smaller semiconductors, and thus revolutionize the chip manufacturing supply chain. AI processors, the low-power semiconductor devices used in smartphones, and the latest high-density memory chips are made using highly complex EUV lithography equipment that is expensive to maintain and consumes enormous amounts of power. Over 20 years ago, Phil Ware, an American engineer working for Japan’s Canon, told a technology seminar at the Semicon West industry exhibition in San Francisco that the problem with EUV lithography was that its power consumption was measured in “HDEs – Hoover Dam Equivalents.”

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