Adapted by:
Juan Carlos López
Senior WriterAn engineer by training. A science and tech journalist by passion, vocation, and conviction. I've been writing professionally for over two decades, and I suspect I still have a long way to go. At Xataka, I write about many topics, but I mainly enjoy covering nuclear fusion, quantum physics, quantum computers, microprocessors, and TVs.
Alba Mora
WriterAn established tech journalist, I entered the world of consumer tech by chance in 2018. In my writing and translating career, I've also covered a diverse range of topics, including entertainment, travel, science, and the economy.
Astronomers enthusiastically celebrate the identification of a supernova. It’s no surprise. Supernovae are among the most violent phenomena in the cosmos. Understanding these explosions is crucial to gaining insight into the final stages of massive stars’ lives. Scientists can also learn about the processes that lead to the formation of new stellar systems from the materials produced during stellar synthesis.
Current mathematical tools explain supernovae as an inevitable outcome of the depletion of nuclear fusion processes in the cores of massive stars. During the main sequence stage, stars generate energy through the fusion of hydrogen nuclei. As this hydrogen is consumed, the star starts producing helium nuclei, changing its composition.
An immense amount of energy is released throughout this process, causing the star to adjust to continually maintain hydrostatic equilibrium. This equilibrium results from the balance of two opposing forces. On one hand, gravitational contraction compresses the star’s matter. On the other, the outward pressure of radiation and gases generated by nuclear fusion attempts to expand the star.
Small Supernovae in Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Equipment
However, I’m here to talk about semiconductors. At first glance, you might think that supernovae have nothing to do with integrated circuits. Yet, they actually share some intriguing similarities.
Dutch company ASML produces extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines. In them, high-power lasers rapidly heat tens of thousands of tiny tin droplets in the span of just a second, raising their temperature to an astonishing 900,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
This interaction creates an extremely hot plasma that emits ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 13.5 nm. This light is then transported to the wafer through a precisely arranged system of mirrors and lenses, allowing it to capture the patterns that define the integrated circuits on a photoresist layer.
This is broadly the methodology employed by today’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturing machines. High-power lasers play a crucial role in the process. According to Jayson Stewart, head of research at ASML, the generation of ultraviolet radiation in EUV lithography equipment for creating cutting-edge chips closely mirrors the phenomena observed during a supernova.
When a massive star exhausts its fuel and nuclear fusion processes cease, the radiation and gas pressure can no longer counteract the gravitational contraction. This leads to the sudden contraction of the star’s iron core due to the immense pressure exerted by the layers of material above it. The star loses its hydrostatic equilibrium. At this moment, all the matter that was supported by the core, which has now become much more compact, collapses onto it at an enormous speed.
As this material impacts the surface of the core, a rebound effect occurs. It results in its ejection with tremendous energy into the surrounding stellar medium, creating a supernova explosion. Some supernovae are so powerful that they emit more light in a few seconds than the entire galaxy that contains them. Interestingly, the tiny explosions produced inside UVE lithography equipment when a laser strikes a tin droplet generate a shock wave similar to that of a supernova, although on a much smaller scale.
Surprisingly, the mathematical equations that describe the evolution of these two types of explosions are the same. Engineers at ASML use them to calculate how the shock wave triggered by the plasma balls inside the UVEs will evolve. Meanwhile, astrophysicists use these equations to describe supernova remnants and deduce the properties of the stellar explosions that created them.
While a supernova releases 10⁴⁵ times more energy than a tin explosion, this parallel allows ASML engineers to effectively address the complex issue of tin debris within their cutting-edge lithography equipment.
Image | ASML
Log in to leave a comment