Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Two big companies, ASML and TSMC, have a new plan together. ASML makes machines that help build computer chips. TSMC uses these machines to make chips for phones and computers.
A chip is a tiny piece of special material. It has millions of tiny parts inside it. Chips help computers and phones think and work.
To make a chip, a machine uses light to print tiny patterns. This is called lithography. The machine needs a photomask for this job. A photomask is like a stencil with a pattern on it. Light shines through the photomask and prints the pattern onto the chip.
Today, photomasks are small, about 6 inches wide. ASML and TSMC want to make bigger photomasks, about 12 inches wide. Bigger photomasks can help factories make more chips for less money. The new plan will take many years. Other big companies, like Intel and Samsung, want to join too.
- chip
- a very small part inside a computer or phone that helps it work
- photomask
- a special stencil that light shines through to print a pattern
- lithography
- a way of using light to print small patterns onto a chip
- factory
- a big building where things are made
- pattern
- lines and shapes that make up the tiny parts of a chip
- machine
- a tool that does a job, like printing patterns on chips
- company
- a business that makes or sells things
- plan
- an idea about what to do in the future
Level 2 — Elementary
ASML, a Dutch company that builds chipmaking machines, and TSMC, a Taiwanese company that manufactures chips, announced on September 7 and 8, 2026, that they are working together on a big project.
The project is about photomasks, the stencil-like templates used to print tiny circuit patterns onto silicon chips. Right now, chipmakers use photomasks that are 6 inches wide. ASML and TSMC want the whole industry to switch to bigger, 12-inch photomasks for the newest and most advanced machines, called High NA EUV lithography machines.
Lithography is the process of using light to print patterns onto a chip's surface. ASML's High NA EUV machines are the most advanced lithography machines in the world, and they use an extremely short wavelength of light called extreme ultraviolet, or EUV.
The companies hope to have a pilot production line for 12-inch photomasks ready by 2031, and they want the whole system to be ready for real chip production by 2033. Bigger photomasks should help factories make chips faster, more cheaply, and with fewer size limits.
- photomask
- a stencil-like template used to print circuit patterns onto silicon chips
- lithography
- the process of using light to print patterns onto a chip's surface
- circuit
- the network of tiny connected parts that makes a chip work
- silicon
- the material used to make most computer chips
- extreme ultraviolet (EUV)
- a very short wavelength of light used in the most advanced chipmaking machines
- pilot production line
- a small, early version of a factory line used to test a new process before full-scale production
- industry
- all the companies that work in the same kind of business, like chipmaking
- manufacture
- to make something, usually in large amounts in a factory
Level 3 — Intermediate
On September 7 and 8, 2026, ahead of the SPIE Bacus photomask technology conference, Dutch lithography equipment maker ASML and Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC unveiled a joint industry initiative aimed at shifting the semiconductor sector from 6-inch to 12-inch photomasks for High NA EUV lithography, ASML's most advanced chip-printing technology.
Photomasks function as stencils, transferring intricate circuit patterns onto silicon wafers during the lithography process. Although High NA EUV machines will initially enter production using existing 6-inch masks, the companies argue that larger, 12-inch masks would boost fab productivity, reduce manufacturing costs, and eliminate the stitching constraints that currently limit how large a single circuit pattern can be printed in one exposure.
TSMC has stated it intends to deploy ASML's High NA technology in high-volume manufacturing for its most advanced chip nodes beginning in 2030, and it expects the number of manufacturing layers requiring High NA EUV to rise as transistor designs grow more complex, a trend driven largely by the demands of AI chips.
The initiative has already drawn interest from other major players, including Intel Foundry and Samsung Electronics, both of which have signed on or expressed intent to participate, a sign of the semiconductor industry's rare consensus on infrastructure investment. The companies are targeting a 12-inch photomask pilot production line by 2031, with full lithography system readiness for advanced chip production expected by 2033.
- semiconductor
- a material such as silicon used to build computer chips, and a term often used for the chip industry as a whole
- fab
- short for fabrication plant, a highly specialized factory where chips are manufactured
- stitching
- a technique of joining several smaller printed sections together to form one larger circuit pattern
- node
- a generation of chip manufacturing technology, often referred to by the size of its smallest features
- transistor
- a microscopic switch that turns electrical current on and off inside a chip
- high-volume manufacturing
- production carried out at large, commercial scale rather than in small test batches
- initiative
- an organized effort or plan launched to achieve a specific goal
- foundry
- a company that manufactures chips designed by itself or by other companies
Level 4 — Advanced
In a rare display of coordinated infrastructure planning, ASML Holding, the Dutch monopolist in extreme ultraviolet lithography, and TSMC, the Taiwanese foundry that fabricates chips for the world's leading technology firms, announced on September 7 and 8, 2026, ahead of the SPIE Bacus photomask conference, a joint industry initiative to migrate the semiconductor sector's photomask standard from six inches to twelve.
The shift concerns High NA EUV, ASML's most sophisticated lithography platform, which uses extreme ultraviolet light and an unusually high numerical aperture to etch ever finer circuitry onto silicon. Photomasks, the stencil-like templates through which that light is projected, currently top out at six inches, a legacy dimension that constrains how much circuitry can be printed in a single exposure and forces manufacturers to stitch larger patterns together from smaller ones, a workaround with its own costs and limitations.
Migrating to twelve-inch masks, the companies contend, would relax those constraints, improve fab throughput, and lower per-chip manufacturing costs, even though the first generation of High NA EUV tools will enter production using the existing six-inch masks. TSMC, for its part, has signaled that it will deploy High NA technology in high-volume manufacturing of its most advanced nodes from 2030 onward, and anticipates that the number of process layers requiring the technology will climb as transistor architectures grow more intricate, a trend driven substantially by the design demands of artificial intelligence chips.
That two firms in different segments of the supply chain, joined by expressions of support from Intel Foundry and Samsung Electronics, are aligning around a shared roadmap, a pilot twelve-inch photomask production line by 2031 and full system readiness by 2033, underscores how capital-intensive and interdependent the frontier of chipmaking has become, where no single company, however dominant, can absorb the cost of reinventing its tools alone.
- monopolist
- a single company that dominates a market with no significant competitors
- infrastructure
- the fundamental physical systems and equipment underlying an industry
- throughput
- the amount of product a factory or process can output in a given period
- numerical aperture
- a technical measure of a lens system's light-gathering and pattern-resolving power
- interdependent
- reliant on one another, such that each party's success depends on the others
- capital-intensive
- requiring very large amounts of money invested in equipment and infrastructure
- legacy
- relating to an older technology or standard that is still in use despite being outdated
- consensus
- general agreement among a group about a course of action
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