Terafab, a plan for one of the world's largest semiconductor plants, has announced plans to adopt a free-electron laser (FEL) as its core technology. Construction is under way on a former site in Texas, with total initial investment of $16.8 billion, suggesting the potential for changes to ASML's conventional monopoly structure.
The Terafab plan is positioned as a massive semiconductor plant proposed by Elon Musk, who leads SpaceX and Tesla, and has allocated approximately $16.8 billion in initial investment. The plan aims to supply more than 1 terawatt of AI computing capacity annually and proposes using a free-electron laser (FEL) as the EUV light source.
Whereas the conventional LPP method has limitations including tin contamination and low energy-conversion efficiency, the FEL is described as generating coherent light directly from high-energy electrons, avoiding contamination while significantly improving energy efficiency compared with the conventional method.
This structural change is said to have the potential to undermine ASML's long-standing monopoly in the EUV lithography market and promote the separation of light-source and scanner modules. For Japanese companies, this could create a risk of contraction in the conventional LPP components market, while also creating potential new market opportunities in beamline distribution optics, superconducting accelerator cavities and ultrahigh-vacuum exhaust systems.