[craigjb]

The ASML lithography machine is just one, very important, machine out of many dozens. A semiconductor fab process involves 100s-1000s of process steps each with dozens to hundreds of parameters. For example, something as simple as rinsing a wafer after an etch step:

- How long to rinse

- What to rinse with (DI water, solvent, etc)

- What temperature to rinse at

- Should the temperature change over time?

- Agitated vs. non-agitated

It may sound small, but a bad rinse process will tank yields and make the whole process fail.

In a huge semiconductor company like Intel or TSMC, multiple process engineers specialize on each one of these steps out of hundreds. These are truly massive undertakings.