ASML Wilton CT - Locations

Wilton at a glance

With over 3,000 employees, ASML Wilton is an important competency center, specializing in critical technologies that advance the performance of our lithography and metrology systems. It’s also our only in-house optical fabrication site.

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Specialties

Find your passion at ASML Wilton

Mechanical engineering

Design, build and test exceptionally high-performance systems as a mechanical engineer at ASML.

Electrical engineering

Work at the leading edge of electrical innovation. Explore the opportunities for electrical engineers at ASML.

Optics

If you enjoy working at or beyond the edge of what’s possible in optics, then ASML is your ideal environment.

Two ASML colleagues work together on a whiteboard.

Software engineering

Find out what it’s like working as a computer scientist or software developer at ASML working in C++, C#, Python or Java.

Manufacturing

From high-school graduates to masters-level candidates, ASML’s Wilton Factory is hiring.

Logistics & supply chain

Discover jobs in supply chain management and logistics at ASML and start planning for your future.

Our technology in Wilton

In Wilton, we work on mechatronics modules, optics, and optical sensors and measurement systems that are critical to both our lithography machines and our metrology and inspection systems.

Optical fabrication

Our Wilton colleagues make the science of polishing low-aberration optics an art, using advanced equipment only available at a few companies worldwide. Optics worth a quarter of a million euros are polished within two orders of magnitude more precisely than eyeglasses.

Wilton also specializes in optical contacting of very large surfaces. By achieving an extremely flat surface, two pieces of glass are fused together to form an indestructible bond, without any glue. This is done on a grander scale than any other industry.

ASML’s sensors must also withstand extreme wear and tear conditions. Wilton has more than 15 chambers that make up its robust coating capabilities. Its diamond-like carbon coating is like those used on military aircraft cockpit glass.

Optical sensors and metrology systems

In Wilton, we also develop sensors that bring together the best in complex optical designs, along with optomechanics, electronics and software to perform sub-nanometer measurements to keep ASML’s systems operating at peak performance. Optical sensors are found throughout our lithography, metrology and inspection systems.

As chip patterns continue to shrink, we push our optical sensor designs to extremes. Advancements focus on reducing measurement time, while capturing larger datasets that help increase a system’s precision. This requires our Wilton colleagues to push the boundaries for optics, including state-of-the-art polishing and coating technologies, as well as ultra-fast precision mechatronics.

Mechatronic systems

In Wilton, we design, test and assemble two crucial modules of our lithography systems: the reticle handler and the reticle stage. These two modules move and hold the blueprint of the chip pattern that will be printed (known as a ‘mask’ or ‘reticle’).

The reticle handler operates with surgical precision to carefully move its priceless payload between locations in the machine, without dropping or distorting it. This sophisticated robot is in constant motion and must account for vibrations that are greater than its position accuracy requirements. It transfers the reticle within 20-25 micrometers of the same location, every time, yet the floor vibrates more than half a meter per second squared.

It’s a complex engineering challenge, which becomes increasingly difficult with ASML’s next-generation EUV lithography tools. Here a symphony of robots operates in parallel to move the reticle into and out of the vacuum chamber. For every one million movements, the reticle handler can’t generate more than one particle that lands on the reticle.

Once the reticle is received, the reticle stage securely holds it in place, without distorting or allowing it to move by more than a few picometers. The completely magnetically levitated stage accelerates at more than 15 g, more than three times the g-force experienced by a fighter jet pilot at takeoff, up to a constant velocity of more than three meters per second. It positions the reticle within fractions of nanometers in all six degrees of freedom at full speed.

The motors that propel the reticle stage generate more than 10,000 newton (N) of thrust force, which would be like dropping a car onto the reticle stage every time it accelerates. It does this billions of times over its lifetime without damaging itself or the reticle, or generating any particles that might contaminate the air.