xLight raises $150M to reinvent the light behind chipmaking
What's the deal? xLight, a developer of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) free-electron lasers (FEL), has raised $150 million in a Series C round.
The company wants to build powerful free-electron lasers to replace the laser-produced plasma (LPP) light sources used in advanced semiconductor manufacturing today.
Why now? Chipmakers are pushing to ever-smaller nodes, and the EUV light that etches those circuits sits at the heart of the process.
A more powerful, efficient light source could reshape how the most advanced chips get made — and the funding gives xLight the capital to chase that goal.
What could go wrong? Replacing an entrenched technology is hard. LPP is the industry standard, and the equipment around it is deeply established.
Free-electron lasers are complex and costly to build. xLight must prove its approach works at scale before chipmakers will switch.
The signal: Now at late stage, xLight is betting that particle accelerator-driven lasers can displace the entrenched light sources at the heart of advanced chipmaking — a capital-intensive wager that reflects how deep tech, not just chip design, is drawing big-ticket funding.
Read more: ITJuzi
Image credit: jurvetson
