ASML Holding NV, the world’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday said that it is launching a large-scale recruitment campaign, with an aim to add 600 engineers this year to cope with rising customer demand.
The program is expected to boost ASML’s local workforce to more than 3,400 this year, the Veldhoven, Netherlands-based company said in a statement.
ASML currently employs more than 2,800 people in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global workforce.
Photo courtesy of ASML Holding NV
The company, which counts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a major customer, said that Taiwan is its biggest hub in Asia, with customer service centers in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan.
In Linkou, the company also makes reticle handlers for its deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems and maintains an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) collector cleaning center to support its customers’ needs.
ASML also operates DUV and EUV lithography training centers in Tainan, according to the company’s Web site.
It is the world’s sole supplier of EUV machines, which were first adopted by TSMC to manufacture 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer chips.
ASML said it shipped 31 EUV machines, valued at 4.5 billion euros (US$5.35 billion), to global customers last year.
The company started a bus tour yesterday to National Cheng Kung University to introduce its EUV technology to students, with planned stops in five other universities — National Taipei University of Technology, National Tsing Hua University, National Taiwan University, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology — in the following weeks, the statement said.
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