photolithography
Americannoun
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the technique or art of making photolithographs.
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Electronics. a process whereby integrated and printed circuits are produced by photographing the circuit pattern on a photosensitive substrate and chemically etching away the background.
noun
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Often shortened to: photolitho. a lithographic printing process using photographically made plates
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electronics a process used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, thin-film circuits, optical devices, and printed circuits in which a particular pattern is transferred from a photograph onto a substrate, producing a pattern that acts as a mask during an etching or diffusion process See also planar process
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of photolithography
First recorded in 1855–60; photo- + lithography
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Numerous companies focus on optical communications within data centers, as well as technologies such as photonics and photolithography that use light to transfer circuit patterns to chips.
From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026
"Or the next generation of chipmaking equipment, because one of the few areas where Europe has foothold is in photolithography - the machines that make the really top-end chips."
From BBC • Aug. 17, 2025
In this research, the team opted for deep-UV photolithography, a process using shorter wavelengths of ultraviolet light.
From Science Daily • Mar. 28, 2024
The latest conflict is over photolithography, which uses ultraviolet light to etch circuits into silicon on a scale measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 27, 2021
Photo-process, fō′tō-pros′es, n. any process by which is produced, by the agency of photography, a matrix from which prints can be made in ink—photogravure, photolithography, and photozincography.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
