SEMICONDUCTORS MADE WITH PHOTOMASKS
SEMICONDUCTORS MADE WITH PHOTOMASKS basics
SEMICONDUCTORS MADE WITH PHOTOMASKS

Semiconductors: The manufacture of semiconductor micro electronic solid state devices requires photomasks. These multilayer devices on a chip are created on a substrate, usually a silicon wafer. The photo process to image or pattern the photoresist that is used is very similar to that of making the mask itself. The latest production technology to pattern the wafers is with Step & Repeat projection camera systems. These optical reduction systems are usually a 4x, 5x, 10 x reduction of a photomask reticle that gets passed through a high resolution lens that reduces the patterns onto the wafer. This reduction process allows for very fine line patterns to be resolved in the circuit. The finer the lines or the shorter the distance electricity has to travel allows the circuit to operate faster. The smaller the features of the circuit patterns typically the higher speed the circuit is. Pioneering Companies in the manufacture of semiconductor circuits were Fairchild Semiconductor, IBM ,Motorola and Texas Instruments.