Antique 4x5 camera creates 20 micron photolithography masks: Super tiny tax form
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as an accessible way to make lithographic masks at home, in threads about hobbyist chip fabrication.
What it is
Ben Krasnow of Applied Science uses an antique 4x5 view camera to make high-resolution photolithography masks in a home shop. He photographs a poster-sized printout onto litho film to get features around 20 microns.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2020 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends bpye · 2025-12 · on “Z2 – Lithographically fabricated IC in a garage fab”
There is a great video on creating lithographic masks on Ben Krasnow's Applied Science channel - [this video] The photographic steps are pretty accessible.
Cites jcims · 2020-04 · on “A startup is building computer chips using real neurons”
Oops, second vid should be from Ben Krasnow’s (bkraz) Applied Science channel: [this video] Ben explains somewhere in there that this was done to help create a better substrate for the first experiment.
Cites anon73044 · 2020-09 · on “TSMC to Mass Produce Breakthrough 2nm Mbcfet Transistors in 2024”
I recall this but don't remember seeing anything smaller being posted. Sub 100nm for a hobbiest would be pretty awesome. [this video]
Cites mgdlbp · 2022-07 · on “Building a Next Level Camera”
Wow, essentially an extraordinarily large view camera built around a repurposed lens, then converted into a depth-of-field adapter[0] in lieu of a digital back. There's actually a known technique for taking wide angle photographs with depth of field this shallow using only a typical long lens:[1] stitching together frames to build a wider field of view is all that's needed; long lenses all have shallow DoF by nature.[a] This interestingly can also be used to explain why the episcope lens has such shallow DoF: its focal length of 432 mm would make it a super telephoto lens, yet its large image circle means it has a wide-angle field of view. If it were replaced by a telephoto lens with the sam