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A comment on TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe chip plant. Parent comment

Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by baybal2 on Monday July 26, 2021 @05:28PM (#27965736)
> The "light source" today is the size of a 3-story house to get 250W on target. One of the main reasons wafer fabs now cost so much.

Yes, EUV machines are said to increase fab electricity consumption few times over, over regular UV steppers.

> There must be a better way.

The better way may well be worse. The alternative proposal is to build the whole fab around a synchrotron.

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Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by Animats on Monday July 26, 2021 @05:45PM (#27965890)
There are several "tabletop synchrotron" projects, but as yet none with the right output for an IC fab. Hopefully someone will solve this problem.
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Re:TSMC eyes Germany as possible location for first Europe c... by baybal2 on Monday July 26, 2021 @05:48PM (#27965911)
Synchrotrons would not be better by much. Efficiencies will still be just above single digits, which still means multimegawatt light sources.

That's still better than tens of megawatt light sources.

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