Sweden-based, AlixLabs has developed a new method for manufacturing semiconductor components. Its “Atomic Layer Etch Pitch Splitting” (APS) tech (patent granted in the US, Taiwan & Europe) eliminates several steps in the process & makes it possible to manufacture the tiny(est) semiconductor components accurately, with manageable wafer fab equipment investments. Specifically, the method allows to split nanostructures (e.g. a 40 nm-wide feature into two features of 10 nm at half the pitch) with a single-step process using Atomic Layer Etching (ALE). The method is said to be “complementary for single exposure immersion & extreme UV lithography (EUV), and related thereto, multiple patterning tech like self-aligned double & quadruple patterning (SADP resp. SAQP), as well as...