ASML has unveiled a significant advance in the power of the light source used in its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems, a development the company says could enable chipmakers to produce up to 50% more Semiconductors by the end of the decade.

The Dutch company is the sole supplier of commercial EUV lithography machines, which are essential for Manufacturing the world’s most advanced chips. Firms including TSMC and Intel rely on EUV systems to produce cutting-edge processors for computers, smartphones and AI hardware.

Michael Purvis, ASML’s lead technologist for EUV light sources, said the new system is capable of “producing 1,000 watts under all the same requirements that you could see at a customer”.

The breakthrough centres on raising the power of ASML’s EUV light source from today’s 600 watts to 1,000 watts. Higher power allows chip manufacturers to expose silicon wafers more quickly, increasing the number of chips produced per hour and reducing overall fabrication costs.

Teun van Gogh, executive vice president for ASML’s NXE EUV machine line, told Reuters the upgrade should allow customers to process around 330 wafers per hour by 2030, up from approximately 220 today. Depending on the chip design, a single wafer can yield anything from dozens to thousands of individual chips.

EUV technology has become a geopolitical focal point. Successive U.S. administrations have worked with the Dutch government to block ASML from selling its most advanced equipment to China, prompting Beijing to accelerate domestic alternatives. At the same time, American start-ups such as Substrate and xLight have secured major investment, with xLight receiving federal support to develop competing systems.

ASML’s latest advance aims to strengthen its technological lead by improving what is widely considered the most complex element of EUV lithography: generating light at a wavelength of 13.5 nanometres with sufficient power for high-volume manufacturing.

To create EUV light, ASML machines fire a stream of molten tin droplets - around 100,000 every second - through a vacuum chamber. A powerful carbon dioxide laser then strikes each droplet, heating it into plasma that becomes hotter than the surface of the sun. This plasma emits EUV light, which is collected by precision optics supplied by Germany’s Carl Zeiss AG and directed onto a silicon wafer coated with photoresist.

The company achieved the latest power boost by doubling the number of tin droplets and using two shaping laser pulses instead of one.

Purvis said the techniques that enabled the 1,000-watt milestone provide scope for future gains. “We see a reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts, and no fundamental reason why we couldn’t get to 2,000 watts,” he said.