Creating Microchips With Exploding Liquid Tin

Modern computer chips are etched using light created by vaporizing tiny droplets of molten tin. This process uses lasers to blast the metal, turning it into plasma that generates extreme ultraviolet light.

This light is so sensitive that it would be absorbed by even the air in the room, so the entire process must occur in a near-perfect vacuum. The machine uses a series of ultra-precise mirrors to bounce this light onto silicon wafers to carve patterns smaller than a virus. It is one of the most complex manufacturing feats in human history. Without this precise dance of lasers and liquid metal, our latest smartphones would simply not exist.