ASML Holding

Infobox_Company
company_name = ASML Holding N.V.
company_
company_type = Public (Euronext: [http://www.euronext.com/trader/summarizedmarket/0,5372,1732_6834,00.html?selectedMep=2&idInstrument=21826&isinCode=NL0000334365 ASML] , NASDAQ: [http://quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/summaryquote.asp?symbol=ASML%60&selected=ASML%60 ASMLD] )
foundation = 1984
company_slogan =
location = Veldhoven, the Netherlands
key_people = [http://www.asml.com/asmldotcom/show.do?ctx=233&rid=357 Board of Management] Eric Meurice CEO, Peter Wennink CFO, Martin van den Brink CTO, Klaus Fuchs Executive Vice President Operations
products = Technology systems for the semiconductor industry
homepage = [http://www.asml.com/ www.asml.com]
industry = Technology
num_employees = 5,600 (2006)
revenue = profit € 3.579 billion (2006)
operating_income = profit € 871 million (2006)
net_income = profit € 625 million (2006)

ASML is a Dutch company and the largest supplier in the world of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry. The company manufactures machines for the production of integrated circuits (ICs), such as RAM and flash memory chips and CPUs.

ASML systems – steppers and step-and-scan machines – use a lithographic process to image patterns onto silicon wafer (electronics). The wafers are covered with a film of light-sensitive material (photoresist), and a light source projects an image of an electronic circuit onto the wafer through a reduction lens. The wafer is then developed and undergoes further treatment to create the circuit pattern. This procedure is repeated up to 50 times creating a wafer full of ICs. As of 2007, the majority of all computer chips produced worldwide are manufactured with ASML machines.Fact|date=July 2008 As of February 2007, the smallest features that ASML systems can currently create are 37 nm.

ASML’s corporate headquarters is in Veldhoven, the Netherlands. It is also the location for research, development, manufacturing and assembly. ASML has a worldwide customer base and over sixty service points in sixteen countries. The company is listed on both the AEX and NASDAQ Stock Exchanges, as ASML.

External links

* [http://www.asml.com/ Official website]