For more than $2.5 billion, ASML Holding NV is acquiring San Diego-based Cymer Inc., which makes laser systems used to create microscopic circuitry on semiconductors and other components.
The Netherlands-based ASML is the largest high-tech employer in Fairfield County, with more than 850 workers at last report at its Wilton manufacturing and research plant.
The company’s machines are used by chipmakers to produce semiconductors. ASML earned $361 million in the third quarter on $1.6 billion in revenue, with sales flat from a year earlier.
Cymer was founded in 1986 and went public a decade later. In the second quarter, the company earned $9.6 million as sales dropped 6 percent to $149 million.
ASML said Cymer’s technology will accelerate its development of extreme ultraviolet semiconductor lithography technology, which is expected to create microchips with more functions at a lower cost and that are more energy-efficient.
