In 1984 stond Van den Brink mede aan de wieg van ASML, waar hij van 2013 tot april 2024 Chief Technology Officer en President was. Hij wordt bovendien gezien als een van de sleutelfiguren achter het wereldwijde succes van het bedrijf en de invloed ervan op het enorme succes van de halfgeleiderindustrie. In 2012 ontving Van den Brink voor zijn rol hierin een eredoctoraat aan de UvA.

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

De huidige trends in AI creëren een enorme vraag van consumenten. Om hieraan te voldoen zijn er ontwikkelingen en innovaties nodig. Beperkende factoren zijn bijvoorbeeld energieverbruik, rekenkracht en het verzamelen van de benodigde enorme datasets. Er zijn zowel geavanceerde als volwassen halfgeleiders nodig. Op welke manier werkt ASML met lithografieverbeteringen die deze groeiende vraag zal kunnen beantwoorden?

Abstract lezing (EN):

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 Brinks 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).