Microlithography & Mask Making - Development of

Summary : There are two essential applications for semiconductor lithography equipment. They are lumped together here under the name 'microlithography and mask making'. The two segments consist of mask-making equipment and wafer patterning equipment. Both have a common origin in the early step-and-repeat cameras which were used to manufacture masks which were, in turn, used to selectively expose photoresist coatings deposited on the surface of a semiconductor wafer.

Click here to view full screen

Annexure :

Microlithography equipment has historically been characterized as being the queen of the clean room. Wafer exposure equipment has, by far, the most stringent precision requirements of all-generally needing to resolve lines and spaces below one micron in width. These must often be overlaid thorough twelve or more layers-requiring alignment accuracies of better than 0.15 microns across a six or an eight inch wafer. This is about the equivalent of getting a hole-in-one from an eighteen mile drive. Such requirements for precision have stimulated a high degree of automation in microlithography equipment.

You may like this also:

The Transistor and the ...

30 Jun 1955

The Invention of the Transistor and the Birth of the Information Age. Michael Riordan, co-author of Crystal Fire, discusses how it came to be. ... See more

The invention of the IC ...

23 Jan 1958

The History of the invention of the Integrated Circuit. Why it wasn't so predictable. Corporate culture played no small part in influencing how a small west coast start-up named Fairchild and a company that mad ... See more

Customer Satisfaction L ...

15 Jun 2018

VLSI's Customer Satisfaction Survey Celebrates 30 Years of award winning semiconductor equipment companies. A Look Back... 2018 marked the 30th year VLSIresearch has released its annual Customer Satisfaction ... See more

SEMATECH - An Oral Hist ...

16 Jun 1992

An interview with Dave Anderson ... See more

Moore's Law: Its Death ...

01 Oct 2003

Its Death Has Been Greatly Over-Exaggerated - ISSM 2003 Keynote Presentation ... See more

Silicon and the Microel ...

The emergence of crystalline silicon and silicon-based material such as silicon-germanium as the premier material and the personnel driving the integrated circuit (IC) microelectronics revolution will be review ... See more

Paradigms of Maskless L ...

The replacement of optical lithography with e-beam direct write for semiconductor manufacturing has been predicted since Gordon Moore penned his 1965 paper, writing "It is worth noting that this density of comp ... See more

Introduction to Assembl ...

Assembly equipment consists of those types of equipment used to separate the completed wafer into its individual dice and to assemble each die into its own package. The assembly equipment market comprises roug ... See more

Etching & Cleaning - De ...

Dry processing methods are chemical processes that use a plasma to drive the reaction. Dry etching is the major segment of dry processing. Today, virtually all etching processes are dry processes. Typically, ... See more

Process Diagnostics - D ...

Process Diagnostics - D ...

Process diagnostic equipment is critical to semiconductor manufacture. Though this equipment is not used to directly manufacture devices, it serves to verify consistent and in-control manufacturing processes. ... See more

Access to and use of this Website is subject to TechInsights' Terms of Use (including Copyright Policy & Claims) and Privacy Policy. By accessing or using this Website you agree to TechInsights' Terms of Use (including Copyright Policy & Claims) and Privacy Policy.

Copyright © 2026 TechInsights Inc. All rights reserved.