photomask
Also known as photoreticle, reticle, mask, photographic mask
thumb|A photomask. This photomask has 20 copies, also called layers, of the same circuit pattern or design. right|thumb|A schematic illustration of a photomask (top) and an IC layer printed using it (bottom) A photomask (also simply called a mask) is an opaque plate with transparent areas that allow light to shine through in a defined pattern. Photomasks are commonly used in photolithography for the production of integrated circuits (ICs or "chips") to produce a pattern on a thin wafer of material (usually silicon). In semiconductor manufacturing, a mask is sometimes called a reticle.
Article
8 sectionsContents
- History
- Overview
- EUV lithography
- Mask error enhancement factor (MEEF)
- Pellicles
- Leading commercial photomask manufacturers
- See also
- References
thumb|A photomask. This photomask has 20 copies, also called layers, of the same circuit pattern or design. right|thumb|A schematic illustration of a photomask (top) and an IC layer printed using it (bottom) A photomask (also simply called a mask) is an opaque plate with transparent areas that allow light to shine through in a defined pattern. Photomasks are commonly used in photolithography for the production of integrated circuits (ICs or "chips") to produce a pattern on a thin wafer of material (usually silicon). In semiconductor manufacturing, a mask is sometimes called a reticle.
In photolithography, several masks are used in turn, each one reproducing a layer of the completed design, and together known as a mask set. A curvilinear photomask has patterns with curves, which is a departure from conventional photomasks which only have patterns that are completely vertical or horizontal, known as manhattan geometry. These photomasks require special equipment to manufacture.