Semiconductor lithography for the next millennium

The IC industry is on a self-prescribed course to greater triumphs: ever-smaller devices and faster circuits. By the beginning of the third millennium, logic ICs are expected to use upwards of 60 million transistors, six layers of metal wiring, and clock rates over 1 GHz. Volume production ICs sporting 0.1-micrometer is being predicted. Manufacturing tools now being developed will feature much shorter wavelengths and elaborate mirrors in place of traditional lenses. Also being honed is proximity X-ray lithography, which has produced this first level of a memory circuit with 0.25-micrometer dimensions.