Lace Lithography is not just another startup. And it is not because it is developing a new photolithography technique that seeks to break down all the barriers that limit the performance of ultraviolet light technology used by the machines manufactured by the Dutch company ASML. And they are used by TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix or SMIC, among other semiconductor manufacturers. A priori, the most prudent thing to do when faced with news like this is to adopt a skeptical stance, but Lace’s work deserves to be taken very seriously. Otherwise it would not have the support of Microsoft nor would it have raised $40 million in financing.
The founders of this company are the Norwegian physicist Bodil Holst and the Spanish physicist and engineer Adrià Salvador Palau. These two scientists created Lace Lithography in 2023, and although their headquarters reside in Bergen (Norway), an important part of their research and development team operates from Barcelona. Be that as it may, the most important thing is that the strategy that this company has devised to solve the lithography of the next generation of integrated circuits does not resemble nor to ASML technology nor to any other innovation we have heard of so far.
The first prototypes are already ready and the test plant will be ready in 2029
The itinerary that Lace Lithography seeks to follow is very ambitious. Its first prototypes, according to Reutersare already prepared, and intends to develop a test tool and a cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing pilot plant in 2029. In any case, in addition to their plans, we know some details about their technology that are worth investigating. In the integrated circuit manufacturing equipment that ASML designs and produces, ultraviolet light is responsible for transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask so that it can be transferred with great precision to the surface of the silicon wafer.
Lace Lithography uses a beam of helium atoms to transfer the pattern described by the chip to the silicon wafer
The light used by high-aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment, which is the most advanced machine that ASML has Currently, it belongs to the most energetic portion of the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, its wavelength extends in the range that goes from 10 to 100 nanometers (nm). The problem is that it is not easy to generate and deal with this form of electromagnetic radiation. And it is not, among other reasons, because it is so energetic that it alters the structure of the physical elements with which it interacts inside the lithography machine.
Lace’s technology solves this and other problems that are closely linked to the use of ultraviolet radiation to manufacture chips. And instead of using light, the engineers at this company use a beam of helium atoms to transfer the pattern described by the chip to the silicon wafer. However, the most striking thing is that this beam has the width of a single hydrogen atom (around 0.1 nm), so on paper this solution will make it possible to produce semiconductors ten times smaller than the smallest ones that TSMC, Samsung or Intel are currently manufacturing.
“Our technology opens a path that potentially has the ability to expand (chip makers’) agenda, as well as make things possible that otherwise would not have been viable,” Bodil Holst declared. John Petersen, scientific director of lithography at IMEC (Interuniversity Microelectronics Center), the most experienced laboratory in developing new integration and nanotechnology technologies that we have in Europe, maintains that the main advantage of using the helium atom beam is that it allows creating much smaller transistors than the current ones. “They are almost unimaginable,” Petersen pointed out. It sounds really good.
Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini
More information | Reuters | Lace Lithography
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