Every advanced foundry using EUV relies on a light source that hits molten tin droplets with a CO2 laser twice to produce 13.5 nm plasma emission. ASML owns this technology today, but it was developed by a San Diego company founded in 1986 by two UC San Diego graduates. The company was founded to commercialize excimer lasers and became the main supplier of KrF and ArF light sources for DUV lithography before it moved to EUV.
Name the company.
It started out as “___ Laser Technologies, Inc.” and tried selling excimer lasers to the medical device industry before turning to chipmaking.
ASML announced the acquisition in October 2012 for about €1.95 billion, and the deal closed in May 2013.