The prerequisites for making progress in today’s information and communication society, which is characterised by cellular phones, computers and the Internet, are ever-higher performance output and ever-smaller microchips. These are produced using lithography with light. The smaller the structures that are to be fabricated, the shorter the wavelength of the light being used for the illumination must be.

At present, high-end lithography is done with an excimer laser with a wavelength of 193 nm, for example for etching Pentium IV processors.

To add to this, in the next few years we will have lithography that emits at 157 nm, which will enable structure widths as small as 70 nm. Research laboratories are currently developing lithography technologies with 13-nm light (extreme UV or EUV) for industry.

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