Inside the most complicated machine on the planet — one that imprints microchips
Synopsis
The machine, made by Dutch company ASML, is used for lithography, a crucial process to create transistors, wires, and other essential components of microchips. Models costing as much as USD180 million are used in making microchip features as tiny as 13 nanometres at a rapid clip. Such precision is crucial to manufacture the world’s fastest cutting-edge computer processors.
Clive ThompsonPatrick Whelan peers through the faceplate of his clean-room bunny suit to see how things are going. Before him is a gleaming chunk of glass, roughly the size of a toaster oven, that is carved with so many scooped-out sections to reduce its weight that it looks like an alien totem. Whelan’s team is gluing it to a large, coffee-table-size piece of aluminum. Both metal and glass are eerily smooth, having been polished for weeks to
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