Just so we're clear, and I'm referring to this HaD article,

https://hackaday.com/2018/04/24/first-lithographically-produced-home-made-ic-announced/

- whatever we as hobbyists can cook up, the ultimate measure of our achievements will be not what we can demonstrate in principle but how well we can catch up with decades of research and commercial development.

And in an necessary act of defining what my project will not be about: it will not be about competing with this product:

and these specs:

https://www.newport.com/f/dynamyx-gt-high-throughput-stage

https://www.newport.com/medias/sys_master/images/images/h0d/h6b/8797212835870/Motion-PL30-Brochure.pdf

As a starting point: a 50x50 cm² grade AA surface plate will set you back $600-700 and that's just the seat at the table :)