Harry Levison, Editor-in-Chief of JM3 (the Journal of Micro/Nanopatterning, Materials, and Metrology) recently published an editorial where he said this about the market for semiconductor chips:

“The transformation in recent years of the market for leading-edge electronics from one where it was expected that electronics should always become cheaper in each succeeding generation of technology to a market in which system value has become more important than the cost of an individual component is one that was not widely anticipated, and was largely responsible for the skeptic’s view that EUV lithography would ever be suitable for use in high volume manufacturing.”

If Harry was not talking about me, he certainly could have been. I was one of those skeptics who doubted the economic viability of EUV lithography, and I was quite vocal in my skepticism. I was, of course, very wrong. Harry’s explanation of why is spot on. Now I am happy to say that I spend most of my professional time figuring out how to make EUV lithography as successful as possible.