Chipmakers have spent two decades pouring investment into a revolutionary new technique to push the limits of physics and cram more transistors onto slices of silicon. Now that technology is on the cusp of going mainstream, thanks to a secretive Japanese company that's mastered the skill of manipulating light for applications from squid fishing to cinema projection.

Ushio Inc. announced in July it had cleared a key milestone, perfecting the powerful, ultraprecise lights needed to test chip designs based on extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV, the process by which the next generation of semiconductors will be made. With that, the company became a major player in future chipmaking.

"The infrastructure is now mostly ready," Chief Executive Officer Koji Naito said in an interview. "Testing equipment was one of the things holding back EUV. With that piece in place, production efficiency and yields can go up."