ASML machines consist of at least two main parts: laser and lenses. Both has been engineered by third-party firms: TRUMPF (laser) and Carl Zeiss (lenses).
> Simply invest tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of man-years and there you go, a second ASML.
As it is often, you'd just need to know where to buy your start (remember MS DOS) and then you can invest a lot from your first revenues.
Canon might come up with a good different solution (13.10.2023):
- Canon, [], launches ASML challenge with machine to make the most advanced chips https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37870372
- Canon Nanoimprint lithography semiconductor manufacturing system (5nm) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37894925
- Canon Prepares Nanoimprint Lithography Tool to Challenge EUV Scanners https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37917587
Correction: not lasers and lenses, but EUV light-source and mirrors.
The TRUMPF laser in the EUV machines is nothing too special, but the Cymer EUV light source, consisting of blasting tin microdroplets at the right angles at speed, with said lasers, is the secret sauce.
And mirrors are used instead, because lenses would absorb the EUV radiation.
But the ASML machines are substantially more than just some purchased parts put together. There’s a lot of unique engineering in bits that you can’t easily point at as a “part”, such as the entire metrology software - that’s the bit that measures how badly positioned and how crooked the wafer is and adjusts the laser and all stage positioning etc accordingly. You can’t buy stuff like that off the shelf, it’s all developed in-house. And they have a whole bunch of things like that, which are like part physics, part math, part mechanics, part software and part choosing/speccing (and sometimes designing) the exact right parts.
Canon’s new effort looks promising indeed btw, would be great if ASML gets some serious competition one day.
A fair case can be made that the twinscan concept is the key.
https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2012/asml-to-acq...
Like we’re in a book and the author needs a technobabble device that is made by just one organization, but incongruously powers entire industries that are foundational to the whole economy, but obviously coming up with an actual description of the device is a bit beyond the ability of the author. So they just call it “the companyname machine” and let the reader come up with details. “Oh it uses mirrors and lenses and concentrates light in a special way that nobody can replicate.” Reality is a hack author.
ASML machines are truly a marvel of engineering. And duct tape btw, but also engineering.
There’s no fundamental reason other companies couldn’t compete. Simply invest tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of man-years and there you go, a second ASML.