ASML, a Dutch company that makes some of the most advanced tools for manufacturing computer chips, will expand into a large new warehouse in North Plains next year.

The 210,000-square-foot building will accommodate increased demand from local customers and larger manufacturing tools, according to the ASML. But the company says it doesn’t plan to add to the 800 people it already employs in Oregon.

ASML makes lithography tools that use ultraviolet light to imprint microscopic patterns onto silicon wafers, patterns that become the electronic circuitry on computer chips.

Its most sophisticated product, known in the semiconductor industry as “High NA EUV,” is the size of a double-decker bus. The tool, which costs nearly $400 million, uses lasers hotter than the surface of the sun to enable smaller chip circuitry than ever before.

Intel is the first semiconductor manufacturer to buy these new tools and installed the first production model at its D1X factory in Hillsboro this past spring. Intel is counting on ASML’s tools to help it regain a technological advantage in the semiconductor industry.

The new warehouse in North Plains is just 7 miles from Intel’s main Oregon manufacturing campus. It will accommodate components for ASML’s larger tools while they await installation.

In a note to other city officials last week, North Plains finance director Bill Reid wrote that plans call for opening the new warehouse in July 2025.

The North Plains site adjoins other commercial developments, across Northwest West Union Road from the Sunset Ridge housing development.

-- Mike Rogoway covers Oregon technology and the state economy. Reach him at mrogoway@oregonian.com.

Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe