Chip lack: ASML manufacturing unit fire could be an additional blow to international semiconductor supply

ASML Holding, which provides a crucial technological know-how made use of in personal computer chips, has described a hearth at a production plant, but the extent of the destruction is just not however known

Technological know-how

4 January 2022

By Matthew Sparkes

A hearth at a manufacturing unit owned by the sole service provider of a important technology made use of to manufacture computer system chips could exacerbate an currently severe world-wide lack of semiconductors made use of in all the things from phones to autos.

The blaze broke out right away on Sunday at a plant in Berlin, Germany, owned by ASML Keeping. While far from a domestic identify, the Dutch business is the world’s greatest supplier of photolithography systems and the only source of intense ultraviolet (EUV) lithography devices, which are a lot more state-of-the-art. These equipment are utilized to etch circuits on to silicon wafers and produce personal computer chips employed by Apple, IBM and Samsung. In the third quarter of very last 12 months, ASML Holding bought €5.2 billion truly worth of this machines.

The planet is experiencing a pc chip lack thanks to a perfect storm of issues which include a global pandemic, a trade war, droughts and snowstorms. It has coincided with a period of soaring, unprecedented desire – in January 2021 alone, chip income arrived at a file $40 billion.

Semiconductor factories have confined potential, and constructing new crops needs large financial investment and frequently takes many yrs. Whilst semiconductor businesses are racing to increase generation and governments are signing bargains to carry crops to their have shores to warranty offer, if ASML just can’t provide as a lot of devices as envisioned, the lack could carry on for considerably lengthier.

ASML Keeping declined a ask for for interview, but claimed in a press launch that it was as well early to inform how major the problems was and no matter if it will have any effects on manufacturing. “The fire was extinguished for the duration of the night and fortunately no persons had been wounded all through this incident,” the launch mentioned. “It will acquire a couple times to conduct a extensive investigation and make a whole assessment.”

Vladimir Galabov at technologies analysts Omdia claims some of the finish items that count on ASML Holding’s equipment have now been in “dire shortage”. The influence of the fire will depend on what was harmed and whether that has an effect on the most superior chip-creating engineering, which has been less afflicted by existing shortages, or more mature gear.

“If it’s factors utilised for lithography equipment utilized to manufacture bleeding edge processors, we may well control marginally greater. If the fireplace-broken factors made use of to manufacture the older nodes, we’re in difficulties because we need to urgently ramp up the production of these processors,” says Galabov.

“We’re coming into 2022 with a whole lot of pent-up demand from customers,” he suggests. “If the fireplace is extreme and if ASML struggles to get well speedily, we might need to get utilised to a tricky semiconductor supply situation for the subsequent two yrs.”

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