Fig. 3.59 : Illustration of plastic flow in photoresist during baking

Requirements of pattern, resists and lithography :

The pattern requirements are pattern size, feature size and alignment accuracy. The requirements of the lithography tool are field size, alignment marks and mask size and type. The pattern requirements are pattern size, feature size and alignment accuracy. The requirements of the technique used for the pattern transfer are mask tone, resist type, resist thickness.

Resolution : How small of features can you make? Current production state of the art is ~90 nm. Resolution is "diffraction limited". Even if a beam of light passes through a single slit, the rays within it interfere with each other and this phenomenon is called diffraction. As patterns approach the same order of magnitude as the wavelength of light, one must be concerned with the wavelike nature of light.