When Brienna Hall started working at ASML as a customer-support engineer last year, she didn’t realize how crucial her role would become. She jokingly refers to her position as a ‘fancy mechanic.’
And to most, the 29-year-old’s work for one of the world’s most important tech giants remains a well-kept secret.
Based at the chip plant in Boise, Idaho, Hall wears a cleanroom bunny suit as she tends to a remarkable machine within an environment that is 100 times cleaner than a hospital operating room.
Her primary responsibility involves the upkeep of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine. This cutting-edge technology is instrumental in manufacturing the world’s most advanced microchips.
These machines, costing $170 to $370 million each, are built using cutting-edge technology once thought impossible.
They’re critical to modern life, powering devices like phones, computers, TVs, and even cars.
‘I thought I had the coolest job ever,’ Hall told the Wall Street Journal. ‘I didn’t process the fact that this job is necessary for our entire world to exist as it does.’
ASML, the Dutch company that produces all EUV machines, is the backbone of the chip industry.
Brienna Hall works as a customer-support engineer at ASML, a vital company most people don’t know about. She maintains EUV lithography machines, crucial for producing advanced microchips
Hall’s work ensures these machines operate flawlessly, enabling the production of semiconductors that power devices like phones, computers, TVs, and even cars
Hall, stationed at Micron Technology’s Boise fabrication plant, ensures these machines operate flawlessly, enabling the production of semiconductors that drive the modern world.
EUV machines, a scientific miracle, began 40 years ago in a small, leaky shed in the Netherlands with the founding of ASML.
Back then, using extreme ultraviolet light to print chips seemed impossible, requiring decades of effort, massive funding, and groundbreaking science.
EUV technology involves vaporizing molten tin droplets and using twin laser pulses—50,000 times per second—to flatten and then explode them into plasma, emitting EUV light.
This light is collected by ultra-smooth mirrors and directed to etch billions of microscopic transistor patterns onto silicon wafers.
The current wavelength of 13.5 nanometers enables chip resolutions 10,000 times finer than human hair.
Developing EUV lithography took decades. ASML delivered its first EUV system in 2010, its 100th in 2020, and shipped 42 machines just last year.
Despite their importance, only six companies own these machines, while countless others depend on them indirectly.
ASML’s tech is essential for products like iPhones and AI data centers, with companies like Apple and Nvidia relying on its precision through manufacturers like TSMC.
Maintaining these $370 million machines is critical. ASML employs 10,000 customer-support engineers worldwide to ensure they run at all hours.
Disruptions can arise from unexpected factors like earthquakes—or even methane gas from dairy farms, as Intel once discovered.
Hall and her peers are ASML’s front-line troops, keeping these indispensable machines operational and the modern tech world moving forward.
ASML is the only company that produces EUV machines, and they are essential for the modern tech industry
Pictured: Workers are seen in front of a ‘High NA EUV’ lithography system at an Intel facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, U.S
Signs of Brienna Hall’s future success at ASML were evident long before she joined the company.
Growing up in Seattle, Hall, now 29, was a Girl Scout who loved perfecting knots. She later became president of the rocketry club at Edmonds College while earning her associate degree.
At Washington State University, she majored in materials science and engineering, transcribed notes for a quantum mechanics textbook, and spent her free time quilting and assembling intricate jigsaw puzzles.
She also planned camping trips despite disliking camping itself.
These experiences prepared her for the meticulous, problem-solving nature of working on a machine with over 100,000 parts.
‘You’re always problem-solving,’ Alex Jordan, another ASML engineer told the Journal. ‘How can I be more efficient? Where can I optimize?’
ASML seeks disciplined, detail-oriented engineers for customer-support roles, and Hall’s technical skills and temperament were a perfect match.
When her professor learned a semiconductor company was hiring, Hall submitted her résumé and soon received an email from ASML. The promise of travel and hands-on work was enough to seal the deal.
Her first big trip was a month in Taiwan at ASML’s training center, where she learned the intricacies of the EUV machine. She honed her skills through months of Fab Ready 2 courses, traveling to Taiwan, San Diego, and Germany.
It took nearly a year of apprenticeship before Hall was cleared to work on the EUV machine independently.
Each part, like the scanner and laser, has its quirks. At Micron’s fab in Boise, the scanner is nicknamed Monica, after the ‘neat freak’ character from the sitcom Friends—’because everything must be perfect,’ Hall said.
Pictured: The process of ultraviolet lithography
When she’s not traveling to different continents, she’s stationed at ASML’s office near Micron’s campus, working 12-hour shifts from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Some days, Hall heads straight to the fab for hands-on work. On others, she monitors the machine remotely from her desk, analyzing data across multiple screens.
‘I’m sure the machine isn’t going to self-combust,’ she said.
Once satisfied the system is stable, she shifts her focus to planning the tasks for the next ‘scheduled down,’ a routine maintenance period designed to prevent costly, unplanned outages.
Micron’s roots run deep in Idaho. Nearly a half-century ago, four entrepreneurs, including an investor who was a local potato baron, founded the company in the basement of a dentist’s office.
Now, with a $15 billion investment, Micron is bringing leading-edge memory manufacturing back to U.S. soil. This new factory, dwarfing the Empire State Building in its concrete foundation, will span an area equivalent to 10 football fields.
Next to this construction site lies Micron’s existing research fab, home to a 300,000-pound behemoth – an EUV machine flown in from the Netherlands on three separate 747 cargo planes.
Brienna Hall admits she can’t go more than a few days without checking on the EUV machine in the fab, captivated by its abilities.
‘By then I get itchy, and I make a reason to go in,’ she said.
Entering the cleanroom, Hall undergoes a meticulous transformation. Covered head-to-toe, a precaution against even the smallest dust particle that could wreak havoc on the delicate machinery.
To minimize disruptions, she limits her water intake and forgoes coffee altogether.
Inside the fab, under the dim yellow lights, it’s hot, loud, and disorienting—but none of that bothers her.
‘When I’m working on the tool and solving a problem, everything else just goes quiet,’ she explains. ‘It’s all about zeroing in and getting that one thing done. There’s nothing better than fixing it.’
On one visit, Hall noticed a water line issue—a minor distortion in a hose that could escalate into a major problem.
It took nearly a year of apprenticeship before Hall was cleared to work on the EUV machine independently
Some days, Hall heads straight to the fab for hands-on work. On others, she monitors the machine remotely from her desk, analyzing data across multiple screens.
After getting authorization, she grabbed two orange buckets from Home Depot, drained the line, replaced the Teflon hose, and installed thermal sensors to monitor it.
The fix was straightforward but essential to prevent downtime for the multimillion-dollar machine.
‘It’s not glamorous,’ Hall said, ‘but I take pride in keeping my machines running for our customers.’
