This is a video explaining what photolithography is.  Photolithography, which translates to "printing with light", is a wafer fab process that allows the accurate deposition of specific patterns of a layer of material on a wafer.

 

To deposit a pattern of material on a wafer, the wafer is first covered with light-sensitive material known as photoresist. A wafer mask with the original pattern is then used to expose the photoresist on the wafer to light according to the pattern.

  

The parts exposed (or not exposed, depending on photoresist type) to light could now be etched away with chemicals, causing the original pattern to be transferred to the resist material covering the wafer.  A new layer of material can now be deposited on the uncovered areas of the wafer surface, copying the original pattern.

  

Produced by Brant Penman, this video was filmed at the Cornell Nanoscale Facility.

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