Solid state: 100 000+ gates on a chip: Mastering the minutia: The submicron geometries needed for VLSI have put IC makers on a new learning curve; object, to perfect feature delineation techniques

Established process technology and manufacturing techniques will no longer do; the 64 kbit RAM demands a quantum jump beyond them. It is a prelude to very large-scale integration (VLSI), or the placing of more than 100000 logic gates on a single chip. Primarily facing obsolescence is the present technique of photolithography as it affects feature delineation, because the wavelength of light used to expose IC mask patterns has become a significant percentage of the line width being printed. And after photolithography, conventional wet-chemical etching must also go; it also contributes to insufficient feature delineation. Meanwhile airborne particles that can become tiny topological defects in the finished water surface must now be virtually eliminated. All of these problems were encountered in the development of the 64-kbit RAM, and they were overcome by breaking new ground in processing techniques.