Inversion Semiconductor offers STARLIGHT
Product
STARLIGHT is Inversion Semiconductor’s planned tunable soft X-ray source for lithography development and related applications.
- Currently Offered
STARLIGHT is Inversion Semiconductor’s planned tunable soft X-ray source for lithography development and related applications.
STARLIGHT’s proposed differentiation combines wavelength tuning with a compact accelerator approach for generating soft X-rays. Its six-to-twenty-nanometer target range gives Inversion a development path that extends beyond the fixed 13.5-nanometer illumination described for conventional EUV lithography in the launch post.
The BELLA-LUX collaboration gives the development program access to accelerator and laser-stability research while early imaging and mask-inspection applications are explored. These are features of the proposed architecture and research program; delivered power, fabrication throughput, and commercial savings remain development goals.
The announced STARLIGHT program depends on further work after initial laser wakefield prototypes, including a one-kilowatt soft X-ray milestone. The founders also describe mirror development and silicon-patterning demonstrations as future steps, leaving several technical milestones before the planned lithography use.
The source must operate within a broader optical system that reflects and focuses its short-wavelength beam. The launch sequence therefore requires progress in both light generation and beam delivery, and its contemplated user facility depends on achieving the stated light-output milestone.
The founders introduced STARLIGHT by name in their February 2025 Launch YC post while describing the BELLA-LUX collaboration. The announcement placed its construction after initial laser wakefield prototypes and laser-stability experiments in a small laboratory.
That development sequence connects the source to research on stable laser operation and short-wavelength generation. The post presents LITH-0 patterning and a possible beam-time facility as later milestones, so the introduction date establishes the offering’s origin rather than a commercial shipment.
STARLIGHT is a light-generation component in Inversion Semiconductor’s lithography development program, with a proposed operating range of six to twenty nanometers. The founders set a one-kilowatt soft X-ray milestone and describe an accelerator driven by laser-generated plasma waves.
The intended system role is to illuminate the planned LITH-0 silicon-patterning demonstrator while separate mirrors direct and focus the beam. Industrial imaging and mask inspection are additional applications under exploration, rather than established deployments of the source.