Photolithography – A Basic Look At Photolithography NanoLithographic Technique, Applications and Resolution

Topics Covered

Background

How Photolithography Works

Applications

Resolution

Background

Several lithographic techniques are used for patterning in the nanoscale region. The most commonly used of these techniques is photolithography.

How Photolithography Works

Photolithography techniques as applied to nanolithography are very similar to conventional lithography for the production of images and printing. A substrate material is coated with a chemical known as a photoresist. By using a mask to selectively expose the resist to light, the exposed areas harden. The soft areas are then chemically etched away and the process repeated to build up a series of layers.

Figure 1. Basic illustration of how photolithography works

Applications

Photolithography is commonly used to produce computer chips. When producing computer chips, the substrate material is a resist covered wafer of silicon. This process allows hundreds of chips to be simultaneously built on a single silicon wafer.

Resolution

Photolithography can be used to produce features as small as 50nm. Resolutions below this are limited by the wavelengths of light. Other similar techniques like X-Ray Lithography and Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) use short wavelength X-Rays and UV light to achieve lower resolutions.

Source: AZoNano

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