Invisix, ASML's spinout, raises 20 million to see inside chips without destroying them
Invisix
Invisix, a startup from Eindhoven that originated as a spinout from ASML, has closed a seed round of 20 million euros to tackle a highly technical issue that, at first glance, may seem almost philosophical: the most advanced chips have become too complex to observe.
As logic and memory stack up in three dimensions and shrink to a few nanometers, the optical tools that monitor each layer can no longer resolve the structures buried inside the device. It’s a yield problem, and in semiconductors, that translates to a financial issue: building a chip is a layer-by-layer process, and if you cannot verify that one layer has been printed correctly before adding the next, you proceed blindly.
Today, this often results in slow, expensive, and sometimes destructive checks, up to slicing a finished wafer to inspect it. Thus arises the impetus to explore the possibilities of inspecting chips in a non-destructive manner, particularly important in a market where a marginal yield gain is worth billions, and the race is won by being the first to reach a new node.
Seeing smaller with smaller wavelengths
Invisix's response follows the logic that has guided lithography itself: to see smaller things, smaller wavelengths are needed. The system is based on High Harmonic Generation, a physical phenomenon recognized by the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L'Huillier from Lund University, with which the company has a long-standing collaboration.
A short-pulse laser excites noble gas atoms until they emit soft x-rays at many wavelengths simultaneously, generating a three-dimensional signal richer than that of a single-color laser. Invisix combines this signal with proprietary reconstruction algorithms and machine learning to reconstruct the internal structure of the device without damaging it, with an architecture designed to withstand mass production volumes.
What makes this bet unusual for a seed-stage hardware company is how much risk has already been eliminated. Invisix has licensed a substantial technology package on soft x-rays developed for over a decade within ASML, where the technology has been incubated since 2015. The company was founded in 2025 by former ASML physicists Christina Porter (CEO) and Sietse van der Post (CTO), supported by veterans of the same program and senior hires like COO Roald Dogge, previously operating at the Dutch contract manufacturer NTS.
In 2023, the team publicly demonstrated the approach in collaboration with Intel and imec, measuring characteristics in gate-all-around transistors, which are among the hardest targets for current metrology.
The round and its signals
The round attracted Hitachi Ventures, Transition Ventures, imec.xpand, Doosan Investment Co., and, in the company’s words, an anonymous leading semiconductor manufacturer. According to The Next Web, prior reports point to Samsung, which would have taken a stake while working on the yields of its 2-nanometer process. The funds will be used to expand the team, accelerate the development of the first commercial system, and support customer demonstrations in the new cleanroom in Eindhoven, where the company has recently moved its testing bench compatible with 300 mm wafers.
Invisix has the testing bench, technological capabilities, and cleanroom; now it’s "just" about transforming a demonstration into a system that a fab can operate at volume. And all this against the backdrop of a continent trying to retain the parts of the chip supply chain where it still has an advantage. The Netherlands hosts ASML, and around it, a group of Dutch and Belgian deep-tech funds, including imec.xpand, is now financing the startups orbiting around it.