Nikon Corporation

American Alpha Inc

Hiroyuki Hiraiwa

Hiroki Jinbo

Norio Komine

Seishi Fujiwara

Issey Tanaka

Kazuhiro Nakagawa

Sming Huang

Katsuya Miyoshi

Shouji Yajima

Masaaki Mochida

Satoru Oshikawa

Jun Takano

Takashi Mori

Kazumasa Endo

Shigeru Hagiwara

Shigeru Sakuma

Minako Azumi

Yasuji Ishida

An optical member manufacturing method of the present invention has a growth step of growing an ingot of a fluoride crystal, a plane orientation measurement step of measuring two or more crystal plane orientations of the ingot, a cutout step of cutting out an optical material from the ingot along any one of the crystal plane orientations obtained in the plane orientation measurement step, and a machining step of performing predetermined machining processing on the optical material to obtain an optical member.

Method for producing optical member

Optical member for photolithography and method of evaluating the same

A silica glass member manufacturing method of the present invention includes the steps of making a silicon compound react in oxyhydrogen flame using a burner having a multi-tubular structure to obtain fine silica glass particles, depositing the fine silica glass particles on a support rotating and placed to oppose the burner to obtain a silica glass ingot with a temperature distribution in at least one plane perpendicular to a rotational axis of the silica glass ingot, the temperature distribution being symmetrical with respect to the rotational axis and having a maximal value between a center and a peripheral portion of the plane, and obtaining a distribution of signed birefringence values on the basis of birefringence values and directions of phase advance axes measured at a plurality of points in the plane perpendicular to the rotational axis of the silica glass ingot and cutting, from the silica glass ingot, a silica glass member whose signed birefringence values monotonously increase from the center to the peripheral portion of the plane.

Method of manufacturing silica glass member and silica glass member obtained by the method

A production method of synthetic silica glass according to the present invention comprises a first step of ejecting a silicon compound and a combustion gas containing oxygen and hydrogen from a burner to effect hydrolysis of the silicon compound in oxyhydrogen flame to produce fine particles of silica glass, and thereafter depositing and vitrifying the fine particles of silica glass on a target opposed to the burner to obtain a synthetic silica glass ingot; a second step of heating the synthetic silica glass ingot or the like obtained in the first step up to a first retention temperature of not less than 900&deg; C., retaining the ingot or the like at the first retention temperature, and cooling the ingot or the like at a temperature decrease rate of not more than 10&deg; C./h down to a temperature of not more than 500&deg; C.; and a third step of heating the synthetic silica glass ingot or the like obtained in the second step up to a second retention temperature of not less than 500&deg; C. nor more than 1100&deg; C., retaining the ingot or the like thereat, and thereafter cooling the ingot or the like at a temperature decrease rate of not less than 50&deg; C./h down to a temperature 100&deg; C. lower than the second retention temperature.

Product method of synthetic silica glass and thermal treatment apparatus

A silica glass member for use with a light having a specific wavelength of 250 nm or shorter, in which the difference in the maximum and the minimum values of hydroxyl group concentration as measured in a plurality of points within a plane vertical to an optical axis whose center is the crossing point of its optical axis with the optical axis of the silica glass member is 50 ppm or lower; and in which the plurality of signed birefringence values obtained based on the birefringence values measured on several points within a plane vertical to an optical axis whose center is the crossing point of its optical axis with the optical axis of the silica glass member and the direction of the fast axis fall within a range of from &minus;2.0 to &plus;2.0 nm/cm. Thus, a silica glass member having high optical transmittance and a high resistance against ultraviolet radiations is provided.

Silica glass member, method for producing the same, and projection aligners using the same

In a projection optical system having at least two silica glass optical members, a birefringence value is measured at each of points in a plane normal to the optical axis with the center at an intersection of each optical member with the optical axis, a distribution of signed birefringence values in each optical member is obtained by assigning a positive sign to each birefringence value when a direction of the fast axis thereof is a radial direction to the intersection with the optical axis and assigning a negative sign to each birefringence value when the direction of the fast axis thereof is normal to the radial direction, and the optical members are combined with each other so as to satisfy such a placement condition that a signed birefringence characteristic value of the entire projection optical system calculated based on the distributions of signed birefringence values is between &minus;0.5 and &plus;0.5 nm/cm both inclusive. This permits minimization of influence from nonuniform distribution of birefringence values in the optical members on the imaging performance of the projection optical system or on the resolution of projection exposure apparatus and in turn enables provision of the projection optical system with high imaging performance, a production method thereof, and the projection exposure apparatus capable of achieving high resolution.

Projection optical system, production method thereof, and projection exposure apparatus using it

A silica glass has a structure determination temperature of 1200 K or lower and an OH group concentration of at least 1,000 ppm. The silica glass is used for photolithography together with light in a wavelength region of 400 nm or shorter.

Exposure apparatus including silica glass and method for producing silica glass

The present invention teaches a computerized automatic morphing photography booth for generating a synthesized composite or altered image from two or more initial images and a method therefor. The initial images to be converted may be real-time images taken on sight and/or stored images previously programmed into the memory of the computer. The computer maps out the essential characteristics of each image and converts the two images into the composite image by blending, merging and/or superimposing some or all of the characteristics mapped out for each initial image. The invention further teaches stationary or moving cameras which are capable of centering the composite in a picture frame.

Automatic morphing photography booth

A method for producing a silica glass for photolithography, which comprises the following steps: jetting a starting material gas, an oxygen gas and a hydrogen gas from a burner and depositing and consolidating silica glass powder on a target to form an ingot having a growing direction, where the ingot is grown in such a manner that at least a part of glass synthesis face on the ingot having the silica glass powder deposited and consolidated is a plane substantially perpendicular to the growing direction of the ingot, thereby to obtain the ingot having a portion in which striae are substantially perpendicular to the growing direction of the ingot; and cutting out of the ingot the portion in which the striae are substantially perpendicular to the growing direction of the ingot, thereby to obtain a silica glass having striae which are substantially parallel to each other and are planar.

Method for producing silica glass used for photolithography

In a method for evaluating the homogeneity of the refractive index of an optical member, the refractive index distribution of the optical member is measured, the measured refractive index distribution is separated into a rotationally symmetric element and a non-rotationally symmetric element in the optical axis direction before or after correction of the power element, and the rotationally symmetric element is further subjected to 2nd/4th-order element correction. Upon execution of such comprehensive evaluation, a photolithography optical member, which can realize a fine, sharp exposure-transfer pattern (e.g., a line width of 0.3 &mgr;m or less) is provided.

Optical member for photolithography, method for evaluating optical member, and photolithography apparatus

In the measurement of internal transmittance of optical pieces, a standard is set for the piece for measuring the transmittance and a method of making the piece is provided. In the piece for measuring the Transmittance of optical materials having two opposing polished surfaces, their surface roughness rms is set to 10 .ANG. or less, thereby making it possible to accurately measure the internal transmittance in the short wavelength region of 300 nm or less where the intensity of the light source of spectrophotometer begins to decrease.

Method of making a piece of glass for measuring transmittance

Liquid material supplying apparatus and liquid material supplying method

An illuminating apparatus which comprises a light source, an optical system for condensing light emitted from the light source and illuminating an object with the condensed light, and an optical member which absorbs light having a wavelength from 260 to 340 nm among the light emitted from the light source, wherein the optical member is made of glass or crystalline material to which metal is doped.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Hiroyuki Hiraiwa