Computing · 2006
Immersion lithography
A layer of water sharpens the light.
Placing ultrapure water between lens and wafer raised the effective resolution of 193 nm light. ASML immersion scanners carried chipmaking from 45 nm down to 7 nm with multi-patterning.
What it built on 2
What it led to 1
Related measurements
The dashed line marks when it first worked.
Transistors per microprocessor Latest: 58.2B transistors (2021) Source: Our World in Data