Carl Zeiss Smt Gmbh

Christoph Hennerkes

Ingo Saenger

Joerg Zimmermann

Johannes Ruoff

Frank Schlesener

Daniel Kraehmer

Martin Meier

Wolfgang Hoegele

Ralf Gehrke

Wolfgang Singer

Manfred Maul

In a method for predicting at least one illumination parameter for evaluating an illumination setting for illuminating an object field of a projection exposure apparatus, illumination parameters are measured at a number of calibration settings, correction terms for prediction values of the illumination parameters are determined from the measured values, and then at least one illumination parameter of at least one illumination setting, which is not contained in the set of n calibration settings, is predicted.

Method for predicting at least one illumination parameter for evaluating an illumination setting

An EUV light source serves for generating a usable output beam of EUV illumination light for a projection exposure apparatus for projection lithography. The light source has an EUV generation device which generates an EUV raw output beam. The latter is circularly polarized. For the purposes of setting the polarization of the usable output beam and in respect of the polarization direction, a polarization setting device has a linearly polarizing effect on the raw output beam. This results in an EUV light source, which provides an improved output beam for a resolution-optimized illumination.

EUV light source for generating a usable output beam for a projection exposure apparatus

An optical system has a light source having an original etendue of less than 0.1 mmfor an illumination system for projection lithography. An optical assembly serves for simultaneously increasing the etendue of a used emission of the light source. The optical assembly is embodied such that an increase in the etendue by at least a factor of 10 results. A component of the optical assembly that is impinged on is displaced relative to the light source such that an impingement region of the emission of the light source on the optical component of the optical assembly varies temporally.

Optical assembly for increasing the etendue

A collector for a projection exposure apparatus for microlithography comprises a plurality of reflective sections which are embodied and arranged in such a way that they can be impinged upon during the focusing of radiation from a first focus into a second focus with angles of impingement in a predefined angular spectrum.

Collector

The invention relates to an illumination system for an EUV lithography device, comprising: a first facet mirror having facet elements that reflect EUV radiation, and a second facet mirror having facet elements for reflecting the EUV radiation reflected by the first facet mirror onto an illumination field. At least one of the facet elements of the first facet mirror or of the second facet mirror is designed as a diffractive optical element for diffracting the EUV radiation. In particular, at least one of the facet elements of the second facet mirror is designed as a diffractive optical element for illuminating only a part of the illumination field. The invention also relates to an EUV lithography device comprising such an illumination system, and to a facet mirror comprising at least one diffractive facet element.

Illumination system for an EUV lithography device and facet mirror therefor

An illumination optical unit for projection lithography has a first polarization mirror device to reflect and polarize of illumination light. A second mirror device, which is disposed downstream of the polarization mirror device reflects an illumination light beam. At least one drive device is operatively connected to at least one of the two mirror devices. The two mirror devices are displaceable relative to one another via the drive device between a first relative position, which leads to a first beam geometry of the illumination light beam after reflection at the second mirror device, and a second relative position, which leads to a second beam geometry of the illumination light beam after reflection at the second mirror device, which is different from the first beam geometry. This results in a flexible predefinition of different illumination geometries, in particular of different illumination geometries with rotationally symmetrical illumination.

Illumination optical unit for projection lithography

The disclosure relates to optical systems of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus, and to a microlithographic exposure method. According to an aspect of the disclosure, an optical system has a light source, a ray-splitting optical element, which splits a light ray incident on this element when the projection exposure apparatus is in operation into a first partial ray and a second partial ray, with the first and the second partial ray having mutually orthogonal polarization directions, and at least one ray-deflecting optical element for generating a desired polarized illumination setting from the first partial ray and the second partial ray, wherein the ray-splitting optical element is arranged such that light incident on this ray-splitting optical element when the projection exposure apparatus is in operation has a degree of polarization of less than one.

Optical system of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus, and microlithographic exposure

The invention relates to an optical system of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus, comprising at least one mirror arrangement having a plurality of mirror elements which are adjustable independently of one another for the purpose of changing an angular distribution of the light reflected by the mirror arrangement, and a polarization-influencing optical element, which generates, for impinging light having a constantly linear or a circular input polarization distribution, an output polarization distribution having a direction of polarization that varies continuously over the light beam cross section.

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Huettlingen, Germany

Christoph Hennerkes