Pat Gelsinger just popped back up in the chip game after getting booted from Intel. The startup xLight grabbed $150 million in CHIPS Act money and brought him on as executive chairman. They want to build better light sources for EUV lithography machines using free-electron lasers instead of the usual plasma method, which they claim runs way more efficiently.
The company plans to use particle accelerators that shoot high-energy electron beams to make EUV photons. This marks one of the first times an American startup has tried tackling this specific corner of chipmaking. They're teaming up with Albany Nanotech Complex to build the tech.
The catch is that xLight still needs to get ASML to play ball and integrate their FEL sources into existing tools, which could get expensive and messy. FEL tech works great in research labs, but nobody knows if it can handle mass production yet.
The company plans to use particle accelerators that shoot high-energy electron beams to make EUV photons. This marks one of the first times an American startup has tried tackling this specific corner of chipmaking. They're teaming up with Albany Nanotech Complex to build the tech.
The catch is that xLight still needs to get ASML to play ball and integrate their FEL sources into existing tools, which could get expensive and messy. FEL tech works great in research labs, but nobody knows if it can handle mass production yet.
