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ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

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Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#21
post #20

Twitter won't show complete threads now without an account. :( Twitter accounts basically de facto require a phone number, or they get suspended.

You can replace twitter.com w/nitter.eu to see things. https://nitter.eu/trungtphan/status/1429464889307762688

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#22
ASML is a great company. What should be stressed is that the lenses are coming from Zeiss SMT, which is a strategic partner of ASML since 1997. In fact, they are so important that ASML bought a significant part of the Carl Zeiss subsidiary some years ago. You can't get a pretty good video about the relationship and EUV at: https://www.zeiss.com/semiconductor-manufacturing-technology...

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#23
Ah yes, ASML. I have a number of friends and ex-colleagues who work there. Unsurprisingly, due to their importance, ASML are extremely well-known inside of the Netherlands. It's one of those companies that spun out of Philips Electronics and became very successful (NXP is another good example).

A lot of research and development is still going on in the area where Philips had their research labs. If you're curious to see what kind of high-tech is being worked on in the "Dutch silicon valley" I suggest you Google "Brainport Eindhoven" or "High Tech Campus Eindhoven".

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#24
I feel like ASML is the company that almost everyone who would care has heard of at this point. Granted, I hadn't heard of them 3 years ago, even though I work directly with HW designers.

Its just funny how they're going through the hype cycle in their level of public awareness. Give it 3 years and (hopefully) the "general public" won't have to care about them again, because chip shortages are resolved :)

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#25
post #20

Twitter won't show complete threads now without an account. :( Twitter accounts basically de facto require a phone number, or they get suspended.

Yep, I feel bad for many of the less technical "rubes" who still believe they're somewhat anonymous on the internet if they, e.g. use Incognito (which Google went out of their way to market as such), or buy some dubious VPN service, or use disposable emails on Reddit, Twitter, etc. accounts.

You are simply not anonymous on any site you visit or search you make or place you go with your phone. The tech giants and their "data sharing partners" can correlate you a dozen ways, and most of that is by design via "features" like JS APIs and browser data that is included in every request.

Those of us paying attention know that Twitter, Reddit, Google, FB, and the rest will turn over your real ID to law enforcement, no questions asked.

And it won't be long now 'till some conservative whistle blower from Google or Twitter leaks the proof that the tech giants - via the more politically inclined activists and operatives who now work in their executive offices - have created blacklists which are used to ensure no wrong-thinkers (e.g. Trump supporters) are hired or employed at their own companies. And then it will be leaked that these same blacklists were traded and sold off to their "partners", and are being used for similar purposes in all of corporate America.

And from there, we know how this story ends, though I'm not sure the activists enabling it understand that things won't turn out well for them either.

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#27
post #24

I feel like ASML is the company that almost everyone who would care has heard of at this point. Granted, I hadn't heard of them 3 years ago, even though I work directly with HW designers. Its just funny how they're going through the hype cycle in their level of public awareness. Give it 3 years and (hopefully) the "general public" won't have to care about them again, because chip shortages are resolved :)

Thinking about it more, I don't think I'd even heard of TSMC until 2014 or 2015. Not entirely sure.

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#28
ASML's first EUV machine contract closure was for $15 bil, and the contract explicitly stipulated that $3bil was just for the purpose of acquiring three specialty Boeing 747s for shipping the machines to the clients.

Each chunk of the machine must be shipped in vacuum. It takes about 40 chunks to make a complete EUV lithography machine. Each is about the equivalent mass of a school bus.

Re: ASML, a $300B Dutch firm, makes the machines that make semiconductors

#29
post #4

Seems like quite a risk to only have one company provide these machines. Semiconductor companies seem to follow the same trend, the major contributing factor seems to be the patent portfolio needed to secure cross-licensing deals. It looks like patents are actively preventing new companies in the semiconductor business.

Canon and Nikon make similar machines too, but they've lost market share ever since ASML released their dual scan system. And at the moment EUV doesn't appear to be a mature enough market to support competitors.
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