ASML spin-out Invisix raises €20M for next-gen chip metrology

Invisix Measuring Systems, a Netherlands-based startup established by an ASML team working on a new way to inspect semiconductor structures using soft X-ray light, has raised €20 million in a round of seed funding.

Rooted in ultrafast optics research by Anne L’Huillier and others that led to a share of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, the Invisix technique relies on high harmonic generation (HHG) and uses a short-pulsed drive laser to excite noble-gas atoms into an excited state.

In this state, the atoms emit soft X-ray light at wavelengths between 0.1nm and 10nm, generating a richer 3D signal than typical single-wavelength lasers and enabling superior metrology than with optical sources.

“Invisix’s system combines HHG with proprietary reconstruction algorithms and machine learning to reconstruct the detailed 3D internal structure of devices,” explains Invisix.

“It crucially achieves this in a non-destructive way, and the whole system's architecture has been designed to scale to the throughput needed for high-volume manufacturing.”

Next-gen metrology

Founded by ASML alumni and PhD physicists CEO Christina Porter and CTO Sietse van der Post, Invisix has been backed by Hitachi Ventures, Transition Ventures, imec.xpand, Doosan Investment Co., and an unspecified top-tier semiconductor manufacturer in its seed round.

Posting on LinkedIn, Porter wrote: “We're thrilled to have the opportunity to show the world the impact that this disruptive technology can bring to the semi industry.”

Porter completed a PhD at the University of Colorado in Boulder before joining ASML to head up the lithography giant’s research efforts in soft X-ray metrology.

In a release announcing the Invisix funding round, she said: “Semiconductor manufacturers can’t build what they can’t see. As chips become more 3D, the industry needs a new generation of metrology tools that can look inside these incredibly complex miniature skyscrapers without destroying them.

“We are entering the market with technology that has been incubated inside ASML for more than a decade - a level of technical de-risking that is unusual for a seed-stage hardware company and gives our customers a faster path to deployment.”

Challenging targets

At SPIE’s Advanced Lithography conference in 2023, the Invisix team revealed details of its technology, disclosing results in collaboration with Intel and imec.

In that work they described successful measurement of key features in next-generation gate-all-around transistor architectures, said to be one of the most challenging targets for existing metrology, using soft X-ray scatterometry.

The company has also recently relocated its 300mm-wafer-capable soft X-ray test bench to a new cleanroom in Eindhoven, where customer demonstrations will continue in parallel with development of its first shippable product for deployment in customer fabs. 

Wolfgang Seibold, partner and chief investment officer at Hitachi Ventures, commented: “As semiconductor architectures grow more three-dimensional, metrology increasingly limits semiconductor yield and ramp speed, with each new node generation intensifying the challenge.

“Invisix tackles this with a technology platform backed by a decade of ASML development, proven results with leading industry partners, and a system architecture designed for high-volume manufacturing. We're excited to support the team as they bring this capability to the market.”

The startup says it has licensed a substantial technology package from work on soft X-ray technology completed at ASML, and also has a long-standing collaboration with L’Huillier, who is a professor at Lund University.