In 1984, Van den Brink co-founded ASML, where he was Chief Technology Officer and President from 2013 to April 2024. He is also considered one of the key figures behind the company's global success and its influence on the enormous success of the semiconductor industry. In 2012, Van den Brink received an honorary doctorate from the UvA for his role in this.

Van den Brink’s presentation is titled: The battle between exponential functions: AI, supercomputers, chips and lithography supported by holistic lithography. He will discuss the role of ASML, shrinking, and how ASML’s lithography improvements will affect future developments. In addition, he will talk about what aspects define the dynamics of the semiconductor ecosystem in which ASML operates.

The battle between exponential functions: AI, supercomputers, chips and lithography supported by holistic lithography.

Current trends in AI are creating huge consumer demand. To meet it, developments and innovations are needed. Limiting factors include energy consumption, computing power and collecting the huge data sets needed. Both advanced and mature semiconductors are needed. In what ways is ASML working on lithography improvements that will be able to meet this growing demand?

The lecture’s abstract:

Current trends in AI create enormous consumer demand. Limiting factors are energy consumption, computing power and assembling the necessary massive data sets. Both leading edge and mature semiconductors are needed.  Moore’s Law is best described as “System Energy-Efficient Performance” improvements. Presently, gains in speed and energy efficiency are realized by innovations on total system integration, including driving up the number of transistors per device for the foreseeable future.

Advanced semiconductor devices will take the form of a 3D stack of densely interconnected chip(let)s. Chip stacking and 3D-transistor structures will increase transistor density. 3D integration increases the value of shrink, which will keep scaling alive for the foreseeable future.

AI training computation volumes grow faster than the continuous energy efficiency improvement of semiconductor & computation systems. Hence, training computation volumes cannot grow limitlessly, and this will result in substantial pressure on AI software and semiconductor /compute innovation to fulfill the AI end consumer demand.

Van den Brink’s CV

Martin van den Brink earned a degree in electrical engineering from HTS Arnhem (HAN University of Applied Sciences) and a degree in physics from the University of Twente.

After he joined the then newly founded ASML as an engineer in 1984, Martin became Vice President Technology (CTO) in 1995. In 2013, he was appointed Chief Technology Officer and President. In his leading role at the company, he was key to driving ASML’s growth and technological innovations that have helped shape the entire semiconductor industry. In the autumn of 2023 Martin announced his retirement from ASML, effective April 2024. Martin van den Brink has received many awards for his contributions to technology innovation and the semiconductor industry, including the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award, the Robert N. Noyce Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Amsterdam and the Technology University Eindhoven. He's also a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion (Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw).