Extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) laser technology company xLight has signed a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office, part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), for $150 million in proposed federal incentives. The agreement supports what will become the first award NIST will make after assuming leadership of the National Semiconductor Technology Center in the Trump administration. The incentives will fuel the construction, build out, and demonstration of a free-electron laser (FEL) prototype at the Albany (N.Y.) Nanotech Complex to advance capabilities in EUV lithography for next-generation semiconductor fabrication. Per the nonbinding agreement, the Department of Commerce would receive $150 million of equity in xLight. “Building an energy-efficient EUV laser with tenfold improvements over today’s technology will drive the next era of Moore’s Law, accelerating fab productivity, while developing a critical domestic capability,” said Pat Gelsinger, executive chairman of xLight’s board of directors and general partner at Playground Capital. Gelsinger previously served as CEO of Intel, in which the U.S. government took a stake in earlier this year. The company expects to use the prototype at the Albany Nanotech Complex, in partnership with non-profit NYCreates, beginning in 2028. It will demonstrate the technology on current generation EUV lithography machines and leverage the existing ecosystem at the facility to pioneer lithography research at sub-EUV wavelengths that could prove essential for manufacturing next-generation high-performance semiconductor devices. xLight's EUV FEL system is designed to replace the current laser-produced plasma (LPP) sources which are nearing their physical limits, the company said. The light source makes use of both electron beam multiplexing and optical multiplexing — a redundancy that allows for high availability at the scanner. Through multiplexing, each of the systems can fully power the scanner fleet that they enable individually, ensuring that maintenance does not interrupt operations. According to xLight, the system is able to provide up to 4× greater power than LPP, allowing fabs to optimize patterning improvements, productivity, and yield. The company also said that the system can reduce cost per wafer by ~50% and support up to 20 ASML lithography systems simultaneously. Netherlands-based ASML holds a near-monopoly in the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of EUV lithography machines. xLight raised $40 million in a funding round earlier this year; the company said at the time that the financing will be used to equip the company with the capital needed to complete design and construction of its full-scale prototype. xLight maintains partnerships with the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based ScienceS and Education (CLASSE), Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.