Solid state: Fast electron-beam lithography: High blanking speeds may make this new system a serious challenger in producing submicrometer ICs

For the first time, electron-beam lithography may become competitive with optical methods, the leading production process today for making integrated circuits. The step that could make this possible is an electron-beam lithography system developed at Hewlett-Packard that is potentially many times faster than previous such machines for making ICs through direct writing on wafers or generating high-precision masks.