Photolithography Equipment Market in the current year (2022), is expected to be valued at USD 11.6 billion and is projected to reach USD 18.0 billion by 2025; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.1%.

Photolithography Market is a crucial process in the field of microfabrication, enabling the precise patterning of thin films and materials on semiconductor wafers. This technique, rooted in the principles of photography and chemistry, plays an integral role in the production of integrated circuits (ICs), microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and other micro-scale devices.

GET MORE INFO https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=145860852 

The Photolithography Process

Photolithography involves several key steps, each contributing to the accurate transfer of intricate patterns onto a substrate. Here’s a breakdown of the process:

1. Surface Preparation: The semiconductor wafer, typically silicon, is thoroughly cleaned to remove any contaminants that could affect the photolithography process. This step ensures a pristine surface for subsequent layers.
2. Photoresist Application: A thin layer of photoresist, a light-sensitive material, is uniformly applied to the wafer using a spin-coating technique. This creates a consistent coating that can be precisely patterned.
3. Soft Baking: The wafer is heated to remove any solvent from the photoresist, solidifying it and enhancing its adhesion to the wafer. This step, known as soft baking, prepares the photoresist for exposure to light.
4. Exposure: The wafer is exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light through a photomask, which contains the desired pattern. The photomask acts as a stencil, allowing light to pass through specific areas while blocking it in others. This exposure changes the chemical structure of the photoresist in the exposed regions.
5. Development: The wafer is immersed in a developer solution that selectively dissolves either the exposed or unexposed areas of the photoresist, depending on whether a positive or negative photoresist is used. This step reveals the pattern on the wafer.
6. Hard Baking: To enhance the durability of the patterned photoresist, the wafer undergoes hard baking, which further solidifies the remaining photoresist and improves its resistance to subsequent processes.
7. Etching and Deposition: The pattern is then transferred to the underlying material through etching, which removes the exposed areas of the wafer, or through deposition, where new