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.
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.

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

Other Resources:

The Chip 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.