ASML Spin-Out Invisix Raises $21.7M Seed for Chip Metrology

Jan de Vries · 2026-06-01

Invisix, a semiconductor metrology company based in Eindhoven, has secured an oversubscribed $21.7 million Seed round. The startup develops next-generation measurement tools for advanced chip manufacturing. The round attracted backing from Hitachi Ventures, Transition Ventures, imec.xpand, Doosan Investment Co., and a tier-1 semiconductor manufacturer. ### What Invisix Does Christina Porter, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Invisix, explained the core challenge: "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." Invisix is a spin-out from Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML. Founded in 2025 by ASML alumni and PhD physicists Christina Porter (CEO) and Sietse van der Post (CTO), the company commercializes a decade of soft x-ray metrology R&D. The technology has been incubated within ASML since 2015. ### The Technology Behind It The company develops 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 powered by technology licensed from ASML. According to Invisix, building a modern chip is like constructing a nanoscale skyscraper. Before adding the next layer, manufacturers need to know whether the previous one was printed correctly. 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," the company stated in a press release. "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." ### How Soft X-Rays Solve the Problem Invisix claims to solve this with a soft x-ray metrology system designed to help chipmakers measure the most challenging layers at scale. It offers a non-destructive, high-throughput solution. The system sees beyond existing measurement tools by using High Harmonic Generation (HHG), a process rooted in discoveries recognized by the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics. Here's how it works: - 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 colors. - This generates a richer 3D signal than typical single-wavelength lasers. The system combines HHG with proprietary reconstruction algorithms and machine learning to reconstruct the detailed 3D internal structure of devices. It 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. ### What This Means for the Industry 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 significant technology package based on soft x-ray research conducted 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 NT. This Seed round positions Invisix to bring its technology to market faster, potentially giving chipmakers a critical edge in the race to develop more advanced semiconductors.