EDA in a nutshell

Semiconductor chips are manufactured using a process called “photolithography.” The word literally means “writing in stone with light.” A chip is built layer upon layer, and each layer begins with an image focused and recorded in a light sensitive resin known as “photoresist” spread on the surface of a silicon wafer, not unlike a shadow puppet or black-and-white slides in a slide projector. The slides are known as masks. The EDA industry exists largely to answer the question, “What image must be on each mask in order to manufacture chips that perform to a given specification?”