ASML to set up new research facility in Eindhoven

The two parties have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop a 10-year strategic research roadmap in the fields of plasma physics, artificial intelligence, mechatronics and semiconductor lithography. The TU/e and ASML will invest "substantially and equally in the joint program", a press release reads. 

The program will together create up to 40 PhD positions yearly, for which the TU/e will recruit international top scientific talents. In turn, ASML will supply its top engineers as hybrid teachers in these areas and will increase the number of internships that it hosts. 

Additionally, the parties are in the process of granting a long-term lease on the TU/e campus for a new ASML research facility in the coming years. At this future facility, the company says that it intends to co-locate many competencies of its research team. The new facility will also have shared workspaces, meeting rooms, research labs and a state-of-the-art cleanroom facility. 

ASML details in a press release that the new cleanroom facility will also include analytical and production equipment in an open-access research laboratory that is also available to TU/e, as well as other research centres and industrial partners. 

"This collaborative cleanroom space will enable growth and synergy across academic research fields of mutual interest such as photonics, quantum computing, nano materials and chip manufacturing. In addition the facility will include substantial cleanroom space dedicated to TU/e exclusively. This space will be rented long-term to TU/e, for fundamental research in the same and related areas," the press release reads.

To reach the goal of this envisioned facility, an estimated investment of several hundred million euros is needed. It is intended to provide space for more than five hundred researchers, including several hundred ASML employees.