The History of Microlithography

A history of microlithography is yet to be written. I am collecting some data for such an effort, and am anxious for help by people with personal experience.

Here is a presentation (PDF) outlining milestones in the development of optical lithography tools, organized by company. It's actually more of a tool company history. (Updated on 8-29-2011)
Milestones in Optical Lithography Tool Suppliers

Atsuhiko Kato has developed a great timeline of lithography tool developments as well:
Kato's Timeline of Lithography Tool Development

Here are some good published papers on the topic of semiconductor lithography history (available in PDF format by clicking on the titles):

  1. C. G. Willson, R. A. Dammel, A. Reiser, “Photoresist Materials:  A Historical Perspective”, SPIE Vol. 3051 (1997), pp. 28-41.
  2. J. H. Bruning, “Optical Lithography – Thirty years and three orders of magnitude”, SPIE Vol. 3051 (1997), pp. 14-27.
  3. T. Matsuyama, Y. Ohmura, D. M. Williamson, "The Lithographic Lens: its history and evolution", SPIE Vol. 6154 (2006) p. 615403.
  4. J. H. Bruning, “Optical Lithography … 40 years and holding”, SPIE Vol. 6520 (2007) p. 652004.
  5. C. A. Mack, “Thirty Years of Lithography Simulation,” Optical Microlithography XVII, Proc., SPIE Vol. 5754 (2005), pp. 1-12.

(Thanks to SPIE, Grant Willson, John Bruning, and Tomoyuki Matsuyama for allowing me to post these papers here.)

 

An analysis of historical trends in the top 20 semiconductor companies

 

Other Resources:

The Chip History Center

Smithsonian Chip Collection

The Computer History Museum

IEEE History Center

 

If you have any antecdotes or histories of lithography development in the semiconductor industry that you'd like to share, please email me at chris@lithoguru.com.