Podcast: interview with ASML’s technical top man Martin van den Brink

A few weeks ago Tweakers published a written version of the interview with ASML’s technical top man Martin van den Brink. We also recorded that interview and you can find the audio version here.

This special podcast from Tweakers is an interview by Olaf van Miltenburg with the technical top man of ASML, Martin van den Brink. The CEO talks about the move to EUV technology: the most important choice in the history of ASML, which makes machines to produce chips.

Those machines contain a light source to shine patterns on a wafer through a mask. This is how they apply the structures of the chips. The shorter the wavelength of light, the smaller the chip structures can be and thus the more economical and faster the chip.

ASML now makes extremely complex chip machines that work on the basis of euv, extreme ultraviolet light, with a wavelength of 13.5nm. Getting these systems working was an unprecedented feat, but it was also very important. The development of the entire chip industry pretty much depended on it. If there is one person who played a crucial role at ASML, it is CTO Martin van den Brink. He joined the company in 1984 and has not only witnessed its growth, but also shaped it.

That you can listen to this is special, because Van den Brink hardly ever gives interviews. He talks about business successes and setbacks, but also about the physical principles that underpin the different generations of machines. It’s about systems that were built, but never appeared, and much more. The time turned out to be too short to tell the whole story and it ends quite abruptly, but it gives a special insight into the development of ASML into the most powerful company in the chip industry.