Morphotonics, a Netherlands-based nanoimprint lithography company that makes waveguide displays for AR glasses, has raised €40 million to scale production and expand into optical components for data centers. The round included 3M Ventures, Innovation Industries, BOM, Invest-NL, the European Innovation Council Fund, a Dutch family office, and the European Investment Bank. The funding extends a round that began in 2024 as the company rides growing demand for smart glasses displays.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-22
China's Institute of Microelectronics (IMECAS) says it has completed early process integration for stacked-nanosheet gate-all-around transistors built entirely with immersion DUV lithography, avoiding EUV tools that Chinese fabs cannot access. The devices reportedly achieved Ion/Ioff ratios above the 5×10⁵ threshold needed to prove effective gate control over the nanosheet stack. However, IMECAS has not released key figures like gate pitch, transistor density, or nanosheet dimensions needed to compare it to actual 3nm-class chips from TSMC or Samsung.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-21
Tera-Print, a small US company that has sold Tera-Fab branded beam pen lithography tools for about a decade, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Tesla, SpaceX and SpaceXAI in May over use of the Terafab name. Tera-Print, whose clients reportedly include the Department of Defense, has now filed a trademark lawsuit, while Tesla and SpaceX argue their planned high-volume chip manufacturing venture is unrelated to Tera-Print's tabletop bioengineering and prototyping tools.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-19
According to a JPMorgan note cited by Semi Doped, ASML has no plans to adopt free-electron laser (FEL) technology for extreme ultraviolet lithography, despite backing from Elon Musk for that approach. Instead, ASML is continuing to refine its existing laser-produced plasma (LPP) method, aiming to boost source power from around 500W to 1,000W and nearly double the rate of tin droplet generation to 100,000 per second.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-18
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in an All-In Podcast interview that China will develop its own advanced lithography machines, comparable to those made by ASML, within the next three to four years. He argued China's manufacturing strength makes such a timeline achievable, despite the country's current reliance on older-generation tools from Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment that support only 90nm and possibly 28nm-class chipmaking.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-16
Scientists synthesized thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) block copolymers using atom transfer radical polymerization, first removing bromo end groups through hydrogenation and then building crosslinkable electroluminescent photoresists (ELPRs) from these polymers as macroinitiators. By adjusting the ratio of crosslinkable monomer to macroinitiator, the team controlled crosslinker density in the final light-emitting polymer material.
nature.com
· 2026-09-16
Kepler Computing, a seven-year-old San Jose startup, has emerged from stealth mode claiming a novel 3D-stacking method and proprietary material can boost memory chip density without relying on costly EUV lithography. The approach applies to both high-bandwidth memory used in AI systems and SRAM cache found in CPUs and GPUs, and can reportedly be built using existing fabrication plants rather than requiring new facilities.
wired.com
· 2026-09-09
ASML is developing a larger 12-inch mask format for its next-generation High-NA EUV lithography systems, letting them print chips as large as those made with current EUV tools. The company expects a pilot line by 2031 and high-volume production by 2033, with CTO Marco Pieters saying the shift could boost system productivity by 40% if the industry adopts it together.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-09
Samsung Electronics and TSMC have committed to deploying ASML's newest high-numerical-aperture EUV lithography systems, machines that can cost up to $400 million each. Both companies join Intel in adopting a related technical change expected to increase chip output on these machines by roughly 40 percent. Samsung plans to use the tools for memory chip production by 2028, while TSMC intends to apply the technology to its most advanced chips for customers like AMD, Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-08
TSMC has confirmed plans to bring High-NA EUV lithography, using 0.55 numerical aperture optics, into high-volume manufacturing by 2030, likely for its A10 or A11 nodes. The company plans to use standard 6x6-inch photomasks initially, followed by a pilot line for larger 6x12-inch photomasks in 2031, aiming for full production with those masks by 2033.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-08
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