ASML’s Anne Hidma: “AI is fueling demand; photonics can meet it”
At PIC Summit Europe 2025, ASML’s Anne Hidma outlined how the semiconductor and photonic chip industries must “scale together” to power AI.
Published on November 7, 2025
ASML's Anne Hidma at PICSummit Europe 2025
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More than forty years ago, ASML worked from a shed behind Philips’ headquarters in Eindhoven. “Scaling had already started there,” said Anne Hidma, Senior Vice President EUR & US and member of ASML’s Executive Team, speaking to a packed audience at PIC Summit Europe. “It was a small crew of people with big dreams and a can-do mentality.”
Four decades later, ASML is a global powerhouse with over 40,000 employees and €4 billion in annual R&D investment; and, as Hidma reminded the audience, its story offers crucial lessons for the photonics industry as it faces its own scaling challenge.
From chips everywhere to AI everywhere
The explosion of artificial intelligence is redefining semiconductor demand. “The killer app of AI is now taking off,” Hidma said. “We go from chips everywhere to AI everywhere, fueled by massive megatrends and a hunger for compute.” She pointed to a range of examples: from John Deere’s autonomous tractors to humanoid robotics and high-performance AI computing powered by NVIDIA. “Applications are all around and that drives a new computing wave, not only in data centers but also at the edge, where sensors and actuators interact with the physical world.”
That growth comes with a price. “To meet all this demand, we face two major challenges: affordability and power,” Hidma warned. “If we continue at this rate, the power required to fuel all these models will simply not keep up. We’d have to build nuclear power plants just to keep AI running.”
The solution, she said, lies in scaling smarter: getting “more compute for less energy.”
Scaling smarter: models, transistors, and manufacturing
ASML’s holistic view on scaling spans three layers: the models that run AI, the chips that execute them, and the production processes that make those chips possible.
“First, we need more efficient models,” Hidma said. “If AI models can digest more parameters using less compute power, we’re in a better place.” Second, chip technology must continue to evolve through smarter architectures, 3D transistor stacking, and designs optimized for AI workloads. “And third, as an equipment manufacturer, we take responsibility to ensure that production itself becomes more energy efficient; both in our machines and in how they are used.”
Enter photonics
That’s where photonics comes in. “The promise is huge,” Hidma said. “Better energy efficiency, higher bandwidth, lower latency, it’s all there. But we need to minimize propagation losses, improve co-packaging mechanisms, and ensure scalable integration.”
ASML’s contribution lies in what Hidma called “holistic lithography”: the combination of scanners, computational lithography (OPC), and e-beam metrology to ensure consistent, precise patterning on photonic chips. “For photonics, patterning control and line edge roughness are critical,” she explained. “Photons don’t like rough edges; every nanometer counts.”
To meet those demands, ASML has developed new OPC models that move beyond the traditional “Manhattan” grid design toward curvilinear shapes. “This gives a threefold improvement in line-edge smoothness,” Hidma showed on the big screen. “It’s exciting to see how this translates from simulations to real structures.”
Advanced packaging tools like ASML’s XT260 further support 3D integration, large-field printing, and high throughput; all are essential for affordable scaling. “Photonics may still be in the pathfinding phase, but the requirements for lithography are already clear,” Hidma said.
Lessons in scaling: ecosystem, roadmap, innovation
Looking back at ASML’s own journey, Hidma identified three ingredients that enabled the company’s scale-up, and that the photonics community can emulate.
1. Build an ecosystem.
“Customer is king,” she said. “We work extremely closely with our customers to understand what they need. And we collaborate with technology partners like imec and Fraunhofer, with academia for talent, and with suppliers, who deliver 80% of our bill of materials. We refuse to make anything in-house that someone else can do better.”
2. Follow a long-term roadmap.
“The industry roadmaps from imec and others gave us a compass for decades,” she said. “They allowed us to align our own roadmap and make the right technology bets at the right time.”
3. Go all in on innovation.
“Big leaps only come from big bets,” she said, citing ASML’s decisions to invest early in immersion lithography and EUV. “Those were high-risk moments, but also turning points.”
A fragmented field with big potential
Turning back to the photonics ecosystem, Hidma described a landscape “full of energy and innovation — but also fragmentation.”
“There are many technologies, substrates, and applications being explored. Costs are still high, and we’re optimizing for short learning cycles rather than high volume. But now is the moment to start building the structure for scale.”
That means defining industry-wide design standards, PDKs, and roadmaps - and identifying the convergence points where photonics and electronics will meet. “For us as an equipment maker, we’d love to understand what you’ll need, so we can put our innovation engine to work to support you,” she said.
“Let’s scale together”
Hidma closed with a clear message: “AI is here and it will fuel demand. It’s up to you, the photonics community, to bring the energy-efficient, high-bandwidth, low-latency solutions to market.” ASML, she added, stands ready to collaborate. “Across scanning, OPC, and metrology, we’re here to help you manufacture at scale. Tell us what you need. Let’s team up to accelerate industrialization, drive down costs, and scale together, without losing the agility that makes innovation thrive.”