ASML launches technical academy in Phoenix to train in-demand engineers

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Max A. Cherney

PHOENIX (Reuters) -Chip equipment maker ASML on Thursday launched a technical academy in Phoenix to train engineers to service the Dutch company’s complex chipmaking machines. 

Located within a few minutes of the Phoenix airport, the facility is designed to train more than 1,000 engineers a year to repair and service ASML’s chipmaking tools. 

ASML decided to open the academy because of the significant increase in advanced chip manufacturing in the United States. Intel and Taiwan’s TSMC have announced significant expansions around Phoenix, and Samsung is expanding its fab near Austin, Texas. Memory maker Micron also has multibillion-dollar expansion plans in the U.S. 

“I think the opening is really coming at the right time, because this boom is already happening here in Arizona, and I think next year we will see Texas, then we will see Idaho, then there will be a few more,” ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said in an interview with Reuters.

ASML’s deep ultraviolet (DUV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machines for making advanced chips are intricate tools that require a similar level of service as modern warplanes such as the F-35, said Vice President Clayton Patch. 

The most advanced EUV tools cost roughly $400 million and it takes several 747s to ship them from ASML’s manufacturing site in the Netherlands. 

Ideal candidates for the service jobs are often ex-military who have worked in the U.S. Navy or Air Force on fighter jets, Patch said. 

“They’re really good hires, getting out of the military,” Patch said. “We love those candidates.” 

The training facility is the first it will operate in the U.S. in about 20 years, Patch said. Previously engineers had to travel to Asia or Europe to learn how to service the chipmaking tools. ASML’s facility includes 14 classrooms and a cleanroom.

The machines that they student engineers will work on are often prototype machines ASML built and is not currently using, Fouquet said, and not machines destined for customers.

“Well, it’s (in) high demand – so quite expensive,” the CEO said.

To meet demand for trained engineers, Patch said the facility is capable of operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company expects eventually to train 2,000 people a year. 

The facility, where engineers are already taking classes, will train ASML staff, but other companies that operate fabs, or chipmaking plants, can also pay ASML to train their engineers. 

It takes ASML three to six months to train engineers to do simple maintenance. Training for more complex repair tasks can take longer. 

HIGH-NA TOOLS

But at the moment, engineers working on ASML’s most advanced equipment known as High-NA EUV will be trained in the Netherlands at the company’s facility there. 

The High-NA tools haven’t yet been put into high-volume production by any of the company’s customers such as Intel and TSMC but they are currently in the qualification stage, Fouquet said. Each customer is attempting to determine the performance of the tools and how to integrate them into manufacturing.

(Reporting by Max A. Cherney in Phoenix; Editing by Tom Hogue and Nick Zieminski)