- As semiconductor devices become increasingly complex, optical measurement tools can no longer see inside, creating a critical manufacturing bottleneck
- Invisix has developed a high-throughput metrology alternative using a soft x-ray light source, rooted in Nobel Prize-winning research, suitable for high-volume manufacturing
- Founded by ASML alumni, Invisix will use the funding to accelerate development of its first shippable system, grow its team and support customer demonstrations
EINDHOVEN, Netherlands–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Invisix, the semiconductor metrology company developing next-generation measurement tools for advanced chip manufacturing, has raised an oversubscribed €20 million seed round, which includes Hitachi Ventures, Transition Ventures, imec.xpand, Doosan Investment Co., and a tier-1 semiconductor manufacturer. The funding will be used to grow the Invisix team, accelerate development of its first shippable system, and support customer demonstrations at a new cleanroom in Eindhoven.
Helping chipmakers build what they can’t yet see
Building a modern chip is like building a nanoscale skyscraper: before adding the next layer, manufacturers need to know if the previous one printed correctly. Yet as advanced logic and memory devices become ever smaller and more complex, optical tools can no longer resolve the internal structures that matter most.
These devices form the backbone of high-performance computing and underpin the promise of AI. Without the ability to measure them, manufacturers are forced into slower, costlier, often destructive alternatives. In a market where even marginal yield improvements can unlock billions in revenue and dominance is won by bringing new nodes into production ahead of competitors, that gap is critical.
Founded by ASML alumni and PhD physicists CEO Christina Porter and CTO Sietse van der Post, Invisix solves this with a soft x-ray metrology system designed to help chipmakers measure the most challenging layers at scale.
A non-destructive, high-throughput solution
Invisix’s system sees beyond existing measurement tools by using High Harmonic Generation (HHG), a process rooted in discoveries recognised by the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics. HHG uses a short-pulsed drive laser to excite noble-gas atoms into a high-energy state. In this state, the atoms emit short-wavelength light, known as soft x-rays, at many colours, generating a richer 3D signal than typical single-wavelength lasers.
Invisix’s system combines HHG with proprietary reconstruction algorithms and machine learning to reconstruct the detailed 3D internal structure of devices. It crucially achieves this in a non-destructive way, and the whole system’s architecture has been designed to scale to the throughput needed for high-volume manufacturing.
Built on more than a decade of ASML technology development
Invisix applies to metrology the same resolution logic that transformed semiconductor lithography. As chip features shrink, measurement wavelengths must shrink too. The company uses soft x-rays to see inside the buried nanoscale structures that optical tools can no longer resolve.
The company has licensed a substantial technology package from work on soft x-ray performed at ASML. The founders are joined by many veterans of the ASML soft x-ray program, as well as senior industry hires including COO Roald Dogge, formerly COO of NTS, a major Dutch semiconductor contract manufacturer. Invisix’s research lineage also extends to a long-standing collaboration with Professor Anne L’Huillier of Lund University, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for her foundational work on the physics behind HHG.
The Invisix team already publicly demonstrated its technology in 2023, disclosing results in collaboration with Intel and imec. They successfully measured key features in next-generation gate-all-around transistor architectures, one of the most challenging targets for existing metrology. The company recently relocated its 300mm-wafer-capable soft x-ray testbench to a new cleanroom in Eindhoven, where customer demonstrations will continue in parallel with development of its first shippable product for deployment in customer fabs.
Christina Porter, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Invisix, said: “Semiconductor manufacturers can’t build what they can’t see. As chips become more 3D, the industry needs a new generation of metrology tools that can look inside these incredibly complex miniature skyscrapers without destroying them. We are entering the market with technology that has been incubated inside ASML for more than a decade — a level of technical de-risking that is unusual for a seed-stage hardware company and gives our customers a faster path to deployment.”
Wolfgang Seibold, Partner & Chief Investment Officer at Hitachi Ventures, said: “As semiconductor architectures grow more three-dimensional, metrology increasingly limits semiconductor yield and ramp speed, with each new node generation intensifying the challenge. Invisix tackles this with a technology platform backed by a decade of ASML development, proven results with leading industry partners, and a system architecture designed for high-volume manufacturing. We’re excited to support the team as they bring this capability to the market.”
Clara Ricard, Partner at Transition Ventures, said: “It’s exciting to see world-class talent come out of ASML and build companies of their own. Invisix is one of Europe’s most promising semiconductor companies: they unlock a major bottleneck for manufacturing advanced chips that power AI training and inference. The technology is de-risked, the market is moving fast, and we’re thrilled to back them as they scale.”
About Invisix
Invisix is a Netherlands-based semiconductor metrology company developing soft X-ray measurement systems for advanced logic and memory manufacturing. Its technology uses short-wavelength, broadband soft X-ray scatterometry to reconstruct the detailed 3D structure of next-generation semiconductor devices at high throughput. Invisix is headquartered in Eindhoven and is powered by technology licensed from ASML. Learn more at www.invisix.nl.
About Transition Ventures
Transition Ventures is a London-based venture capital firm investing from inception to Series A in companies transforming the physical world. Its portfolio spans Europe and the US, including companies like Olix, Upway and Seneca. The team behind the fund have founded and scaled companies worth over $20bn across software, hardware and deep tech.
About Hitachi Ventures
Hitachi Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Hitachi, Ltd., with over $1B in assets under management and teams based in Munich, Boston, San Francisco and Bangalore. The firm invests in foundational technologies across AI infrastructure, enterprise software, industrial automation, energy, and healthcare. The firm partners with founders solving complex challenges at the intersection of hardware, software, and physics, and works closely with Hitachi’s global R&D and operating businesses to support validation, industrialization, and real-world deployment at scale.
Contacts
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