Canon plans to disrupt chipmaking with low-cost “stamp” machine

Company is challenging industry leader ASML with its nanoprint lithography tech.

Canon’s FPA-1200NZ2C nanoimprint lithography machine. The company has been developing technology to stamp chip designs onto silicon wafers rather than etching them using light.

Enlarge / Canon’s FPA-1200NZ2C nanoimprint lithography machine. The company has been developing technology to stamp chip designs onto silicon wafers rather than etching them using light. (credit: Canon)

Canon hopes to start shipments of new low-cost chip-making machines as early as this year, as the Japanese company best known for its cameras and printers tries to undercut longtime industry leader ASML in providing the tools to make leading-edge semiconductors.

The challenge from Canon comes as Western governments attempt to restrict China’s access to the most advanced semiconductor technologies and as global demand for chipmaking machines has soared. If successful, Canon’s “nanoimprint” technology could give back Japanese manufacturers some of the edge they ceded to rivals in South Korea, Taiwan and, increasingly, China over the past three decades.

“We would like to start shipping this year or next year... we want to do it while the market is hot,” said Hiroaki Takeishi, head of Canon’s industrial group, who has overseen the development of the new lithography machines. “It is a very unique technology that will enable cutting-edge chips to be made simply and at a low cost.”

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Ransomwarebefall bei Südwestfalen-IT: Vertraulicher Forensik-Bericht offenbart viele Versäumnisse

Ein Forensik-Bericht liefert Erkenntnisse zum Akira-Ransomware-Befall bei der Südwestfalen-IT, der die IT-Dienste von über 100 Kommunen lahmlegte. Ein Bericht von Günter Born (Security, Server)

Ein Forensik-Bericht liefert Erkenntnisse zum Akira-Ransomware-Befall bei der Südwestfalen-IT, der die IT-Dienste von über 100 Kommunen lahmlegte. Ein Bericht von Günter Born (Security, Server)

Gitai: ISS bekommt zwei neue Roboterarme

Das Start-up Gitai liefert zwei neue Roboterarme für die ISS. Mit ihnen soll getestet werden, wie Satelliten im Weltall repariert werden können. (ISS, Raumfahrt)

Das Start-up Gitai liefert zwei neue Roboterarme für die ISS. Mit ihnen soll getestet werden, wie Satelliten im Weltall repariert werden können. (ISS, Raumfahrt)

Daily Telescope: Two large galaxies swimming in a sea of interstellar dust

“I think of the civilizations in those galaxies looking back at the Milky Way.”

Galaxies in a sea of interstellar dust.

Enlarge / Galaxies in a sea of interstellar dust. (credit: Chris McGrew)

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

Good morning. It's January 29, and today's image features a pair of galaxies.

Located in the middle of the image, Bode's galaxy is the beautiful spiral and is named after its discoverer, German astronomer Johann Elert Bode. To its right is the Cigar galaxy, also discovered by Bode. The origin of its colloquial name is rather obvious, I think.

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