How Light Builds Your Computer Chips

Computer chips are built by carving patterns with beams of light. By projecting precise shapes onto light-sensitive chemicals, engineers shrink circuits to sizes smaller than a human virus.

This process is the backbone of the modern digital age. Scientists coat silicon wafers with a light-sensitive material and expose them to intense patterns of ultraviolet light to etch microscopic paths. It is essentially advanced photography used to build the complex brains inside your smartphone. Without this constant dance between optics and chemistry, modern high-speed computing would be physically impossible.