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photolithography

American  
[foh-toh-li-thog-ruh-fee] / ˌfoʊ toʊ lɪˈθɒg rə fi /

noun

  1. the technique or art of making photolithographs.

  2. 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.


photolithography British  
/ ˌfəʊtəʊlɪˈθɒɡrəfɪ, ˌfəʊtəʊˌlɪθəˈɡræfɪk /

noun

  1. Often shortened to: photolitho.  a lithographic printing process using photographically made plates

  2. 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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

See Examples For:

Using photolithography, they added visual reference markers around the edges of each membrane.

From Science Daily Aug. 3, 2026

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

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

With selections from his poems and other writings by the late Alexander Gilchrist, . . . illustrated from Blake's own works, in facsimile by W. J. Linton, and in photolithography; with a few of Blake's original plates.

From A Catalogue of Books in English Later than 1700 (Vol 1 of 3) Forming a portion of the library of Robert Hoe by Various

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