What is photolithography?

Photolithography is like drawing really tiny pictures on a super small surface, so tiny you can’t see them with your eyes.

Imagine you have a blank piece of paper, and you want to draw a picture on it using light. That’s what photolithography does, but instead of paper, it uses a special kind of chip, like the ones inside your phone or tablet.

First, they put a special coating on the chip, kind of like wax on paper before you draw on it.

Then, they shine light through a mask, which is like a stencil with tiny shapes cut out. This mask lets only certain parts of the light pass through to the chip.

Where the light hits, the coating changes, and that’s how the tiny picture gets drawn on the chip. It's like using sunlight to trace a shape on paper, but much, much smaller!

Afterward, they use chemicals to show the picture clearly, it’s like erasing the parts you don’t want to see.

This process helps make microchips that power all your favorite gadgets!