system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How does 14nm lithography work?

I am wondering what technology the semiconductor industry utilizes to achieve 14nm feature sizes. I searched the web for a while but could only find stuff about Moore's law and why 14nm is great, but nothing tangible about the actual manufacturing process. Would be great if someone could help out!

Edit: I should have made more clear that I'm not interested in a general explanation of lithography but rather in the specifics of the 14nm lithography process, especially how the feature size can be so small.
gpt
The two main technologies used are photolithography and electron beam lithography. Generally, you take a silicon wafer, cover it in a material that is resistant to acid but sensitive to light (called a resist), and then expose it to UV light that is shone through a "mask" that lets light shine only on specific spots (this is similar to how cameras focus an image onto film). This induces a chemical change in the resist, such that the exposed parts can be washed away. Then, you expose the whole thing to acid so that the silicon that is not covered in resist gets etched, while the rest of it gets protected. When you remove the resist afterwards, you have a patterned surface. Electron beam lithography is similar, except instead of exposing light you use a beam of electrons, whose path is controlled with electric and magnetic fields, like in an old TV screen. This is higher resolution, but slower.

Another technology is focused ion beam milling, which is sort of like using a pressure washer on a wood deck, except instead of water it's a beam of ionized atoms and instead of grime being blasted away it's the surface atoms.