Meet Brienna Hall, An Engineer Running The World; What Does She Do?

Brienna Hall has one of the most important jobs in the contemporary world. Saying she runs the world would not be a hyperbole. This 29-year-old woman from Boise, Idaho, maintains and operates extreme ultraviolet lithography machines (EUVs)-- devices that create microchips in our mobile phones, televisions, cars, etc. "This job is necessary for our entire world to exist as it does," the engineer admitted, in an interview with Wall Street Journal. 

Who Is Brienna Hall?

Before even turning 30, Brienna Hall has one of the most critical and coolest jobs ever. She works at ASML, the Dutch company that invented EUVs and is the only organisation making them. She got the job straight out of college when her Washington State University professor passed her resume and the company reached out requesting she apply.

Hall is a graduate in engineering and materials science. At ASML, she is one of the over 10,000 engineers maintaining the hundreds of EUVs manufacturing the world’s microchips. She told WSJ how she had not even heard of the company or EUV machines, but applied when she found out that the extensive training would require her to travel across the world.

Hall first travelled to Taiwan where she spent a month learning about an EUV’s 100,000 parts. Her next training destination was in Germany and then San Francisco. She spent months learning at each of these destinations before her entry-level training was done. She then completed an apprenticeship before she was allowed to work on EUVs by herself.

The majestic EUV machines create microchips by vaporizing drops of molten tin and blasting the metal with ultraviolet lasers to leave an imprint of a chip pattern on silicon wafers. Of the few hundred EUVs in the world, only six companies own their own. The rest of the world depends on ASML. That's how exclusive and indispensable Brienna Hall's job is.

Operating An EUV

Entering the EUV’s room, the first thing Hall does is wear a decontaminated full-body suit so as not to alter the precise conditions needed for the machine to operate accurately. According to WSJ, the air in this room is "100 times cleaner than a hospital operating room." Hall describes, “Everything must be perfect. The conditions must be just so for her to function.”

Hall's job is to dissect the machine’s problems and monitor them daily to make sure any issues don’t arise. She works 12-hour shifts and has to use the bathroom as little as possible to keep from contaminating the machine room with comings and goings. I’ll space out and limit my sips of water. I won’t drink coffee,” she said, detailing the intensity of her job.

However, for Hall, this rigorous process is cathartic. “When I’m on the tool and fixing a problem, it’s like everything else goes quiet. I’m just focused on getting that one thing done. There’s nothing better than just zeroing in on that problem until it’s solved," she said. Hall’s dedication underscores the unseen yet vital work that keeps the modern world advancing.