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Virtually everyone seemed to be entering the semiconductor capital equipment business in the early eighties. An entourage of government bodies, both foreign and domestic, as well as interested but alien business entities were continuously scouting opportunities in Silicon Valley. Thus it came as no great surprise when the Dutch Government teamed up with Phillips and ASM to enter the stepper market under the Philips name. Their first product soon followed—the Sire 3. But the triumvirate was not to last; Philips soon begged out and a fourth company was born: ASM Lithography or ASML as it was to become known. The outcome was introduction of the ASML PAS 2000 Wafer Stepper. This stepper resulted in a more robust design, offering high exposure speeds and fast throughput at a CD between 1.0 and 1.3 micron along with an overlay accuracy of 0.25 micron.
It became the granddaddy of the PAS 2500, which
would then lead in to the long-lasting PAS5500 line of steppers that
took the world by storm.
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