Invisix, an ASML spinout, has raised 20 million euros to inspect chips at a level of detail previously unattainable. The Eindhoven-based startup uses “soft” X-rays to measure 3D structures in chips that have become invisible to optical tools. With this, it aims to solve a pressing yield problem in the chip industry.
The funding round attracted investors such as Hitachi Ventures, imec.xpand, Transition Ventures, and Doosan Investment. An anonymous tier-1 chip manufacturer also participated. Previous reports pointed to Samsung, which intends to use Invisix’s technology to improve yields on its 2nm process. These yields are critical to increasing margins for products such as HBM memory, which is used in Samsung factories for AI chips from Nvidia, AMD, and hyperscalers.
Invisix plans to use the €20 million to strengthen its team and build a first production system. Customer demonstrations from a new cleanroom in Eindhoven are intended to facilitate further growth.
Optical tools are no longer sufficient
The problem Invisix is addressing is that current measuring instruments cannot fully handle the minuscule scale of chips. As a result, previously unmeasurable imperfections have gone undetected until the wafer—the piece of silicon on which chips are manufactured—has already been divided.
A shorter wavelength than that of current measuring equipment is needed to inspect smaller structures. Incidentally, it is not only the small scale but also the complex 3D structure that makes it difficult for measuring instruments. Layered systems with highly precise designs require a new measurement method.
The Invisix system uses high-harmonic generation, the technique in which a short-pulse laser excites noble gas atoms until they emit soft X-rays. Invisix combines this radiation with reconstruction algorithms and machine learning to reconstruct a 3D image of a chip. The underlying physics was recognized with the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Ten years of ASML research as a foundation
What is striking for a seed-stage company is how much risk has already been mitigated. Just as ASML was once a development project originating from Philips, Invisix owes its existence to ASML. For instance, it has licensed a comprehensive package of soft X-ray technology that was developed within ASML over more than a decade. CEO Christina Porter and CTO Sietse van der Post, both physics graduates and former ASML employees, lead the company. The technology was demonstrated as early as 2023 in collaboration with Intel and imec, during which measurements were taken on gate-all-around transistors.
According to Bits&Chips, the system can measure more than four times as many parameters simultaneously as conventional optical scatterometry, making it particularly suitable for the most complex 3D structures. This positions Invisix in a segment where existing metrology tools fall short and the pressure from AI-driven chip demand is highest.
Read also: ASML: from a leaky shed to the chip industry’s key player