ASML's $150-Million Machine Blasts Tin

In 2021, a bus-sized extreme ultraviolet lithography machine from Dutch company ASML cost about $150 million and helped manufacturers produce advanced computer chips. It contained 100,000 parts and 2 kilometers of cable, while delivering one required 40 shipping containers, 20 trucks, and three Boeing 747s. To create EUV light, the machine fired high-powered lasers at tin droplets 50,000 times per second. Six precision mirrors then guided that light through a patterned reticle to etch features only a few dozen atoms wide onto chips.

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