Lithography, a process that gave birth to Modern technology

"Advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
Arthur C. Clarke

Wet water play, play fire burning. It is a cause and effect that commonplace happen in everyday life, despite the fact the proverb can be contradicted by the presence of waterproof technology so that we won't be wet when playing water and fire inhibitors so we will not burn when playing. But here we are not going to discuss the relevance of context of the proverb with current conditions, but rather its meaning. If the proverb a causal relationship is associated with the context of the birth of the modern technology, then the cause is "lithography" and as a result was the birth of modern and advanced technology.

It could be said all the chips (electronic circuits to complex in a very small size), which became the backbone of modern technology when it was created and produced by lithography, Photolithography method. Modern technology-based silicon-based chip has a very wide application, of telecommunications systems (HP existing digenggaman you now), computers, medical equipment, electronic equipment (TV, refrigerator, etc.), car, until the plane restarted space shuttle. Without the process of Photolithography capable of producing chips, then these awesome technologies will never terwujudkan.

The benefits of the product and the results of lithography to human life is extremely large, so that a world without the process of lithography will become the world we know today. We will not be able to read this article in plastic beams measuring 12 x 6 x 1 cm ^ 3, which we refer to as Smart phones. Ironic that although the number of mobile phones in Indonesia exceeds the number of inhabitants, much less Indonesia community know about lithography, and are not aware about the benefits of lithography which was so great for human life. This could be caused by a mindset into the consumer electronic items, compared with a mindset as a manufacturer.

This technology originated from the 18th century through the industrial revolution, reached its climax in the 20th century through the microelectronics revolution ushering in mass production of microelectronics equipment such as chip; then supported by the discovery of the transistor in 1947 and the discovery of the chip on 12 years later. Lithography is derived from the ancient Greece which means "writing with stone", by definition, lithography is a printing process (print) from a flat surface that is created in such a way so as to remove the ink passage that except on indeed will be used as the mold. The process of lithography was created through a "marriage" between chemistry and the science of optics. Since 1796 (the year the discovery of Lithography by Alois Senefelder Germany scientists), the science and technology of lithography continue to evolve. Starred lithography is used as a method to mass produce objects based printing such as paintings and books.

The basic principles of physics is not as oil mixed with water. The first inventor of lithography uses images created by fat/wax on a smooth surface like a plate of limestone/limestone. The stone is then reacted (called the process of etching/etching) with a mixture of acid and gum Arabic (derived from Acacia trees) on the part that is not coated with the fat/wax (called etching parts). Furthermore, after the entire surface of the stone had been as good, with fat/wax or with acid and gum Arabic, then an oil-based ink can be used to coat a section that is not in the etching (grease-coated) and will not stick to the part etching (acid-coated). That is because there is a thin layer of water (the result of the reaction of acidic and limestone), so that the ink will only stick to the main image covered with wax/grease. Stone with ink stick is then can be used to print on a sheet of paper. Until now, traditional lithography is still used in the painting technique of fine-art.  As shown in the following figure.

If the process of giving birth to the modern technology of 1826 with an arrow, then his nock (the very tip of the back arrow for the rope lashed the bow) is the invention of lithography in 1798, his shaft (the handle of the child arrow) was the discovery of Photolithography in 1826, and the point (the tip of sharp arrows) is the development of semiconductor Photolithography in 1950.

Since it was first discovered, lithography has undergone a great many changes and refinements. However, some types of lithography is still used today, from lithography with stone plates used on fine art printing, offset lithography printing process used in newspapers and magazines, to semiconductor Photolithography using a variety of light radiation to print chips.

Then how can I print with the stone method able to make chips and modern technology? Look forward to the next article. But if you can't wait, here is a list of books that you can read:

• C. a. Mack, Fundamental principles of optical lithography: the science of microfabrication. Chichester, West Sussex, England; Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley, 2007.
• U. Okoroanyanwu, Chemistry and lithography. Hoboken, N.J. : Bellingham, Wash., USA: Wiley; SPIE Press, 2010.
• X. Ma and g. r. Arce, Computational lithography. Hoboken, n. j.: Wiley, 2010.
• C. M. Sotomayor Torres, Ed., Alternative Lithography. Boston, MA: Springer US, 2003.
• B. Yu and d. z. Pan, Design for Manufacturability with Advanced Lithography. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2016.

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