Ushio sells its first EUV light source

In 2008, Japanese specialist lighting company Ushio acquired full ownership of XTreme Technologies. The German company, originally a joint venture between Lambda Physik and Jenoptik Laser, then joined forces with Philips Lighting, aiming to build the light sources for ASML’s EUV scanners.

To produce EUV light, the partners bet on a technique called laser-assisted discharge plasma (LDP), which works by having two discs rotate in a bath of liquid tin, covering their surface with the metal. The film is evaporated with a laser and subsequently ‘ignited’ by an electric discharge. The resulting plasma emits EUV light.