The US Department of Commerce has signed a preliminary letter of intent to provide up to $150 million to xLight, a Palo Alto-based startup led by former Intel chief Pat Gelsinger, that is working on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.
The Commerce Department's CHIPS Research and Development Office proposes dishing out the federal incentives to xLight under the CHIPS and Science Act.
If the funding goes ahead, it will cover the development and demonstration of a free-electron laser (FEL) prototype as an alternative light source for EUV lithography, a process used in the manufacturing of the most advanced chips.
The Department of Commerce would receive $150 million of equity in xLight in return, in line with the Trump administration's recent policy of taking a stake in companies, such as Gelsinger's former employer Intel, that receive government subsidies.
Announcing the offer, the agency noted that EUV lithography has emerged as a critical technology to enable high-volume manufacturing of transistors at sub-7 nm scales. But it says there is demand for more powerful and cost-effective means to manufacture leading-edge semiconductors, and FEL sources have the potential to deliver this.
The current leader in EUV lithography is Netherlands-based ASML, whose TWINSCAN EXE:5000 products fill a very large room and cost about €350 million ($407 million) apiece.
"For far too long, America ceded the frontier of advanced lithography to others," Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. "This partnership would back a technology that can fundamentally rewrite the limits of chipmaking. Best of all, we would be doing it here at home."
"With the support from Commerce, our investors, and development partners, xLight is building its first free-electron laser system at the Albany Nanotech Complex, where the world's best lithography capabilities will enable the research and development that will define the future of chip manufacturing," xLight CEO Nicholas Kelez said in a statement.
Kelez is presumably referring to the semiconductor research and development center established under the Biden administration for the purpose of advancing chip manufacturing using EUV lithography.
As for Gelsinger, he couldn't resist bringing Moore's Law into it.
"Building an energy-efficient EUV laser with tenfold improvements over today's technology will drive the next era of Moore's Law, accelerating fab productivity, while developing a critical domestic capability," he said. ®
Source: The register