Gigaphoton has announced hTGM for ArF, an on-site gas-recycling system for semiconductor fabs that use ArF excimer lasers. Tom’s Hardware reports a 50% neon recycling-rate claim, but Gigaphoton’s announcement does not specify that percentage or explain how it was measured. The company does say one unit can connect to as many as five ArF lasers and reduce gas consumption by up to 470 kiloliters per year—vendor-stated specifications, not independently verified savings.
What Gigaphoton announced
hTGM for ArF is designed to collect used gas in semiconductor fabs, recycle it, and return it to ArF excimer-laser operations. This is industrial fab equipment, not a consumer neon-recovery device. Gigaphoton says the system shares hardware with its hTGM for KrF, which the company says can help with production ramp-up.
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Gigaphoton’s announcement describes the intended use and capacity, but it does not establish that customers have installed the ArF system or achieved the stated reduction in operation. The company has not disclosed a price, uptime, maintenance intervals, or broad deployment schedule in the announcement.
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What the 50% figure does—and does not—mean
Tom’s Hardware’s October 6, 2026 coverage attributes a 50% neon recycling rate to Gigaphoton. The primary announcement reviewed for the product instead emphasizes gas-consumption reduction and the number of lasers served; it does not state the 50% figure. It also gives no denominator, test protocol, operating period, fab configuration, or customer data for that rate. Treat 50% as a reported company claim, not an independently measured result.
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The separate figure of up to 470 kiloliters per year is Gigaphoton’s stated gas-consumption reduction per unit. It is not enough information to calculate a guaranteed quantity of fresh neon saved at a particular fab: the announcement does not provide the operating assumptions needed to translate the maximum into a customer outcome.
How neon recycling fits into ArF laser operations
ArF excimer lasers use gas mixtures as part of semiconductor lithography. An in-fab recycling system can process discharged gas so it can be checked and returned to service, rather than relying solely on fresh gas. Cymer’s 2017 technical paper describes steps including filtering, spectral analysis, mixture reconstitution, high-resolution gas analysis, and checking recycled gas against ArF light-source specifications.
Cymer’s authors reported that their own system could purify and reuse more than 90% of discharged process gas, with no significant laser-performance difference reported between facility-supplied and recycled gas. Those findings concern Cymer’s system and cannot establish hTGM for ArF’s recovery rate or performance.
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The available vendor and event-page descriptions use different measures and do not provide a shared test basis. Their figures should not be read as a head-to-head ranking.
| System | Published description | What the source does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Gigaphoton hTGM for ArF | Gigaphoton says one unit can connect to up to five ArF lasers and reduce gas consumption by up to 470 kiloliters annually. Tom’s Hardware reports a 50% neon recycling-rate claim attributed to Gigaphoton. | The primary announcement does not state the 50% rate or its measurement basis. It does not provide independent validation, customer results, uptime, maintenance, or price. |
| Kanken Techno recycler | A SEMI Taiwan 2026 event listing says a recycler was operating at a semiconductor fab, connected to three ArF lasers, and achieving a rate above 90%. The listing says certification with both excimer-laser makers was underway. | The event listing is supplier-presentation information, not a controlled comparison with Gigaphoton; no shared measurement protocol is given. |
| Wonik Holdings rare-gas recycling system | Wonik describes filtering, purification, analysis, storage, compression, filling, and high-purity neon purification for lithography laser sources. | The company page reviewed does not provide a comparable quantified performance figure. |
| Cymer system described in a 2017 paper | Cymer’s authors report purification and reuse of more than 90% of discharged process gas and stable ArF performance using recycled gas. | This is a separate vendor’s system and reported findings, not a benchmark for the three other systems. |
A sound evaluation would also need comparable evidence on gas purity and laser stability, fresh-gas reduction versus throughput, deployment and certification, maintenance and uptime, and total operating economics. The published descriptions above do not supply a matched set of those figures.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the announcement matters to fabs
Gigaphoton frames the system as a way to reduce exposure to rare-gas procurement risks and support supply-chain resilience. CEO Tatsuo Enami said the company aims to mitigate those risks by combining excimer-laser gas-consumption reduction technologies with on-site recycling. That is the company’s stated aim, not evidence of realized customer savings or adoption.
The practical significance will depend on how the system performs in a fab’s operating conditions: whether recycled gas consistently meets laser specifications, how much fresh gas is displaced, and what installation and maintenance require. Those results are not established by the announcement.
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Sources
- Gigaphoton’s Business Wire announcement for the system description and vendor-stated capacity.
- Gigaphoton’s news page listing the announcement.
- Tom’s Hardware coverage reporting the 50% claim.
- SEMI Taiwan event listing for Kanken Techno’s presentation details.
- Wonik Holdings’ rare-gas recycling system description.
- Cymer’s 2017 technical paper on its in-fab ArF gas-recycling system.
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