Headlines
Interview
Advantest’s breeding ground for new test technology is in Zwolle
Salland Engineering, part of Japan’s Advantest since 2024, is quadrupling its test capacity. CEO Paul van Ulsen discusses the rapid changes sweeping through semiconductor testing. “We now operate as Advantest’s engineering and photonics test house.”
Opinion
Machines that think: sensing the world
This is the eighth part in a series on how AI is crossing out of software and into the physical world. This time, Jan Bosch looks at the layer that does the verifying and what it actually costs to install.
News
Trumpf seeks cost reductions for EUV power supplies in Poland, not Asia
Trumpf is under strong pressure from ASML to reduce costs. The German family-owned company is now transferring series production of power supplies from Freiburg to Warsaw, Poland. EUV drive lasers will also benefit from these savings. Trumpf considers production in Asia too risky.
Interview
“Materials will play a huge role in scaling going forward”
As dimensional scaling is slowing down, the industry is entering the materials age, says Vamsi Paruchuri, ASM’s Corporate VP of Technology, Innovation and Market Research.
Background
High Tech Almere aims to give Dutch chip ecosystem room to grow
With ASM as an anchor and a planned research institute focused on advanced materials, Almere wants to build a new high-tech campus from scratch, creating room for the Dutch semiconductor industry to keep growing.
Background
Orange Quantum Systems bets on becoming the ASML of quantum testing
Quantum computing has no shortage of ambitious hardware developers racing to build ever larger processors. Delft-based Orange Quantum Systems wants to test them all.
Background
The shared challenge of particle accelerators and chip machines
Control systems for deep-tech tools share several common denominators, whether in a particle accelerator or a proton therapy linac: real-time operation, deterministic behavior and zero room for failure. Cosylab built this expertise over 25+ years. Now, it’s applying it in the semiconductor industry.
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Background
AIM Solutions bridges metrology gap between interferometry and AFM
Replacing lenses with algorithms, Eindhoven-based AIM Solutions believes it can fill an important gap between today’s optical and scanning-probe semiconductor metrology tools. The startup eyes advanced packaging as its first target market.
Background
Why Groove is betting quantum computing’s future rests on germanium
Silicon has been the semiconductor industry’s workhorse for more than half a century, but Delft startup Groove Quantum believes its cousin germanium is better positioned to support large-scale quantum computers.
Interview
“You can’t tell top experts that they have to follow the rules”
Budi Sastra gathered geniuses in his group at Philips Research (Natlab). It was also home to some of the most headstrong characters. They made inventions that ASML and Philips Healthcare still benefit from today. Bits&Chips visited Sastra in Singapore, where he continues to coach high-tech companies.
Background
Modernization of movable football pitch system
Since 2001, the movable football pitch of FC Schalke 04, the famed German “Traditionsverein,” has witnessed many memorable matches. All those years, its mechanical drive system had been performing well, but an electrical system upgrade became necessary. Last summer, Dutch industrial automation company Kremer modernized the system using Beckhoff PC-based control technology and prepared it for smart energy management and predictive maintenance.
Interview
“AI has made it crystal clear: Compute has never mattered more”
Imec CEO Patrick Vandenameele on scaling and Europe in the age of AI.
Background
Dutch quantum enters its make-or-break phase
The Netherlands still ranks among the world’s quantum leaders, but other nations are investing at an entirely different scale. Dutch quantum leaders argue that maintaining the country’s lead now depends more on industrial policy than on scientific breakthroughs.
Editorial
The Nexperia crisis: inevitable or precipitated by circumstance?
There are two ways to read Nexperia’s fate: as the predictable conclusion of a Chinese takeover or as collateral damage from the US-China technology war.