Cymer, Inc.

David M Johns

William N Partlo

Richard L Sandstrom

Richard M Ness

Igor Vladimirovich Fomenkov

Richard C Ujazdowski

John Martin Algots

Scott T Smith

Paul C Melcher

Stuart L Anderson

Curtis L Rettig

Ronald L Spangler

Robert A Shannon

Shahryar Rokni

Robert B Saethre

Peter Clarke Newman

Thomas Patrick Duffey

Xiaojiang Jason Pan

Thomas D Steiger

Vladimir B Fleurov

Gamaralalage G Padmabandu

Raymond F Cybulski

Alex P Ivaschenko

Paolo Zambon

Vladimir A Kulgeyko

Mark Branham

Clay C Titus

Christian J Wittak

Jerome A Emilo

Sunjay Phatak

The present invention provides an excimer laser capable of producing a high quality pulsed laser beam at pulse rates of about 4,000 Hz at pulse energies of about 5 mJ or greater. A preferred embodiment is an ArF excimer laser specifically designed as a light source for integrated circuit lithography. An improved wavemeter with special software monitors output beam parameters and controls a very fast PZT driven tuning mirror and the pulse power charging voltage to maintain wavelength and pulse energy within desired limits. In a preferred embodiment two fan motors drive a single tangential fan which provides sufficient gas flow to clear discharge debris from the discharge region during the approximately 0.25 milliseconds between pulses.

Four KHz gas discharge laser system

Four KHz gas discharge laser

An improvement over prior art voltage timing compensation circuits is achieved by incorporating a function generator to provide a more accurate non-linear compensation to pulse timing delay, which is typically a non-linear function of voltage. An improvement over prior art temperature timing compensation circuits is achieved by providing for actual temperature measurements to be made and used to drive the timing compensation circuitry for a more accurate temperature timing compensation than provided by prior art temperature synthesis, while still using a relatively simple compensating circuit. In some embodiments a timing compensation circuit combines both voltage and temperature timing compensation.

High speed magnetic modulator voltage and temperature timing compensation circuit

Growing community of inventors

Lakeside, CA, United States of America

David M Johns