Information / Electronics & Computing

Projection Aligner (Micralign)

Perkin-Elmer's Micralign (1973) projects the mask onto the wafer without touching it, so masks last and chip yields rise.

Earlier contact printing damaged masks and wafers. The Micralign used mirror optics to scan a 1:1 image and was the workhorse of chip making until steppers replaced it around 1980.