The photolithography, cutting-edge technology that is used in every device in every field, from smartphones to MRI machines in hospitals.
Photolithography is a cutting-edge manufacturing technology used to create integrated circuits, and it plays a critical role in nearly every modern device—from smartphones and laptops to cars and MRI machines in hospitals. At the most advanced level, this process is known as EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) photolithography, which uses extremely short-wavelength light to fabricate the smallest and most complex semiconductor components used today.((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ultraviolet_lithography))
How does this machine work? It is an extremely complex process, both to explain and to fully understand, so here is a simplified overview. EUV photolithography uses extreme ultraviolet light to pattern extremely small transistors onto a silicon wafer, which is a highly purified circular disc of semiconductor material with a standard diameter of 300 mm. The wafer acts as the base on which microscopic circuit patterns are formed through a sequence of exposure, development, and etching steps. To visualize the scale, imagine writing a word on paper and then shrinking that word down to the size of a few nanometers—this is roughly the level of precision required to place a single transistor on a chip. Multiple patterned sections are repeated across the wafer to create many identical chips at once.((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ultraviolet_lithography))
Before EUV, chip manufacturers relied on DUV (Deep Ultraviolet) lithography, which operates at longer wavelengths such as 365 nm, 248 nm, and 193 nm. DUV lithography is still highly precise and remains widely used today, particularly for less critical layers of a chip. Using EUV for every layer would be impractical and extremely expensive, as EUV systems are far more complex and costly to operate. In modern semiconductor manufacturing, EUV and DUV are therefore used together, each applied where it is most efficient. The EUV process itself involves several tightly integrated subsystems—including the light source, illuminator, reticle (mask) system, projection optics, and wafer stage—each requiring atomic-level precision. Even a minor error can ruin an entire wafer, resulting in significant financial loss.((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ultraviolet_lithography))
Only a few companies manufacture photolithography systems, and while firms like Nikon and Canon produce DUV equipment, ASML is currently the only company in the world capable of delivering EUV photolithography systems at a commercial scale. This exclusivity is due to the immense technical difficulty, enormous financial risk, and decades of research required to develop EUV technology. These machines must operate in ultra-clean fabrication environments, where even microscopic dust particles or contaminants can damage the chips. The impact of EUV photolithography is visible everywhere: faster and more power-efficient devices, sharper cameras, advanced robotics, and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence. Although you may never see an EUV machine yourself, it quietly shapes your daily life—and its future lies in pushing toward 2 nm technology nodes and high-NA (numerical aperture) EUV systems, which will enable the next generation of computing power.((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ultraviolet_lithography))
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