ASML makes semiconductor-manufacturing equipment—not chips. It is best known for lithography scanners, which use light to transfer circuit patterns onto silicon wafers, and it also sells related measurement, inspection, software, service and upgrade products. Its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) scanners are hard to replicate because they combine a demanding light source, specialized mirrors, precision motion and control, and a supplier and service network into one system that must work reliably at production speed.
What ASML makes
ASML’s products help chipmakers pattern wafers during fabrication. Lithography is one stage of a much larger process: a scanner projects a circuit pattern onto light-sensitive material on a wafer, but it does not manufacture a finished chip by itself.
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The company’s portfolio includes deep ultraviolet (DUV) and EUV lithography systems, metrology and inspection equipment, computational lithography software, and an advanced-packaging product, as described in ASML’s 2025 annual report. It also sells services and upgrades that support equipment used in chip factories.
| Product area | What it does | How it fits in chipmaking |
|---|---|---|
| DUV lithography | Uses deep-ultraviolet light to project patterns onto wafers. | ASML says DUV systems produce the majority of chip layers; they remain important alongside EUV. |
| EUV lithography | Uses 13.5-nanometer extreme-ultraviolet light to pattern wafers. | Used for some of the most intricate, critical layers. |
| Metrology and inspection | Measures and checks features and process results. | Helps manufacturers monitor whether patterns and processes meet requirements. |
| Computational lithography | Software and computation used to help optimize lithography. | Supports the design and control of patterning processes. |
| Advanced packaging | Equipment for a later stage of semiconductor assembly. | Extends ASML’s portfolio beyond wafer lithography. |
The roles and portfolio categories in the table are described in ASML’s 2025 annual-report product overview. EUV is not a wholesale replacement for DUV: manufacturers use the technologies on different layers and in different process flows.
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How an EUV scanner makes and uses light
1. Create EUV from tin plasma
ASML’s EUV source repeatedly fires laser pulses at tiny droplets of molten tin. The interaction creates plasma that emits EUV light. ASML gives the light’s wavelength as 13.5 nanometers in its technical explainer on light and lasers. Its 2025 annual-report technology discussion says the latest commercial sources repeat the process 60,000 times per second; that rate describes those sources, not necessarily every system or generation.
The source took years of development to reach useful power. ASML’s 2025 account describes a one-watt prototype in 2010, a 250-watt level in 2018 and a 500-watt prototype in 2022. In April 2025, the company reported demonstrating a 1,000-watt source. It explicitly distinguished that demonstration from a commercial product: Jayson Stewart, ASML’s Head of Source Research, said the company believed it would be some time before a commercial 1,000-watt source was ready. These are ASML-reported milestones, not an independent assessment of performance. (ASML 2025 annual-report technology discussion.)
2. Reflect the light through a vacuum optical system
EUV is absorbed by almost all materials, so the light cannot travel through an ordinary lens train or air-filled optical path. ASML’s systems use a vacuum and reflective optics instead. The mirrors use more than 100 precisely engineered layers, according to the company’s 2025 annual-report discussion; ASML also explains the mirror approach in its lenses and mirrors overview.
The optics must be exceptionally smooth and positioned with great precision. Repeated exposures also generate heat, which can deform components and affect imaging. The system therefore has to monitor and compensate for changes, rather than simply point a powerful light source at a wafer. ASML identifies ZEISS as its strategic partner for projection optics in the annual report.
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3. Pattern the wafer accurately and repeatedly
The scanner projects a pattern from a mask (also called a reticle) onto resist-coated silicon. The mask and wafer must be aligned, held in focus and moved accurately while the system exposes the wafer. High throughput matters too: a machine that can make a pattern once in a laboratory is not equivalent to one that can repeat it reliably across production wafers.
ASML attributes improvements across its systems to several components working together, including the light source, wafer handler, stages, imaging control and projection optics. The operating result depends on the integrated scanner and its process environment—not just the wavelength or power of its light.
Why EUV is difficult to replicate
The source must be powerful, stable and production-ready
Generating EUV through laser-produced tin plasma is only the start. A production source must deliver usable light consistently while managing the tin target, laser pulses, contamination, heat and reliability. Output power took a long engineering progression to reach useful levels; a laboratory or demonstration milestone alone does not establish commercial throughput or uptime.
The optics have unusual materials and precision demands
Because EUV is absorbed so readily, a rival system would need to solve the same difficult optical problem: create multilayer mirrors, keep them exceptionally smooth, place and control them precisely, and integrate them into a vacuum system. The optics also have to remain stable under operating conditions and work with the source and scanner mechanics. ASML describes the mirror technology and precision demands in its optics explainer.
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Motion, alignment and software must work as a system
A scanner’s stages, wafer handling, imaging control and optical system must coordinate with the source. Errors in focus, alignment or overlay can undermine the pattern even when the light source is working. Computational lithography, metrology and process control help manage those interdependent requirements; building one impressive component would not reproduce the complete manufacturing capability.
Manufacturing, suppliers and service matter
Specialized components must be designed, qualified, manufactured and integrated at scale, then supported and improved over successive generations. ASML’s annual report specifically names Carl Zeiss SMT as its strategic projection-optics partner. That is evidence of a specialized supplier relationship, not proof that no other organization could ever build a competing system.
A fab needs reliable output, not a demonstration
Chipmakers need repeatable performance, uptime, wafer throughput, process yield and compatible mask, resist and fabrication flows. EUV can reduce the need for complex multiple patterning with DUV on some layers, but it does not eliminate DUV or the rest of chip fabrication. Replication therefore means recreating a mature production system and the know-how around it, not merely copying one machine component.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What ASML’s current product figures do—and do not—show
ASML’s 2025 report gives examples of performance and development milestones. They refer to particular systems or company-reported demonstrations and should not be generalized to every EUV scanner.
| Figure | What ASML reported | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| 220 wafers per hour | Full-specification throughput for NXE:3800E systems shipped in 2025. | A reported specification for that system and shipment context. |
| 175 wafers per hour | Throughput reported for EXE:5200B. | ASML also said the EXE:5200B was 60% more productive than EXE:5000; this is a comparison to that model, not to all scanners. |
| 0.55 numerical aperture | High-NA EUV, compared with 0.33 for the preceding EUV platform in ASML’s optics explainer. | A measure of the optical platform, not a wafer-throughput figure. |
| 2027 | ASML’s 2025 report expected the EXE platform to start supporting high-volume manufacturing in 2027. | A company forecast made in that report, not a guaranteed production date. |
| 48 EUV systems | ASML reported selling 48 EUV lithography systems in 2025. | An annual unit-sales figure, not the installed base or total market demand. |
These values are reported in ASML’s 2025 annual-report product portfolio; the numerical-aperture figures are also explained in its lenses and mirrors overview.
What the EUV advantage means for chipmaking
Short-wavelength EUV light can print especially intricate patterns, which is why it is used on selected critical layers in leading-edge manufacturing. But a chip contains many layers, and DUV continues to produce most of them, according to ASML’s 2025 portfolio description. The practical choice is not simply “EUV or DUV”: manufacturers use lithography methods according to the needs of each layer and the economics and requirements of the overall process.
For readers considering ASML as a business, the technology helps explain why its role is unusual in the semiconductor supply chain: it sells highly specialized capital equipment and related services to chipmakers, rather than producing the chips those customers sell. The engineering complexity supports a systems-level explanation of its position, but it does not by itself establish future sales, profits, valuation or investment returns.
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