Cymer, Inc.

Asml Netherlands B.v.

Other

Cymer Laser Technologies

Advanced Pulse Power Technologies, Inc.

Tom a. Watson

Igor V. Fomenkov

Palash P. Das

Donald G. Larson

Anthony J. Deruyter

William N. Partlo

Igor Vladimirovich Fomenkov

William N Partlo

Alexander Igorevich Ershov

Richard L Sandstrom

Daniel J W Brown

Palash P Das

Alexander Bykanov

Richard M Ness

Oleh V Khodykin

John Martin Algots

Richard C Ujazdowski

Herve A Besaucele

Robert Jay Rafac

David Wayne Myers

Norbert R Bowering

Eckehard D Onkels

Vladimir B Fleurov

Robert A Bergstedt

David C Brandt

Robert N Jacques

Yezheng Tao

Scott T Smith

Ivan Lalovic

Stuart L Anderson

David S Knowles

I Roger Oliver

Klaus Martin Hummler

Armen Kroyan

William G Hulburd

Frederick G Erie

Ronald L Spangler

Daniel L Birx

Andrew David LaForge

Norbert Bowering

Yue Ma

Jerzy R Hoffman

Tom A Watson

Stephan T Melnychuk

Richard G Morton

Xiaojiang Jason Pan

Jesse D Buck

Jacob P Lipcon

John A Rule

Gamaralalage G Padmabandu

Curtis L Rettig

German E Rylov

Robert A Shannon

Rodney D Simmons

Thomas Patrick Duffey

Georgiy Olegovich Vaschenko

Dzmitry Labetski

Oscar Hemberg

Chunguang Xia

Donald G Larson

Daniel Anthony Rothweil

Robert G Ozarski

Christianus Wilhelmus Johannes Berendsen

Henricus Gerardus Tegenbosch

Raymond F Cybulski

John Tom Stewart, Iv

Scot T Smith

Daniel John William Brown

Kai-Chung Hou

Martinus Hendrikus Antonius Leenders

Johannes Hubertus Josephina Moors

Johannes Henricus Wilhelmus Jacobs

Peter Clarke Newman

Jan Steven Christiaan Westerlaken

Fei Liu

Antonius Theodorus Wilhelmus Kempen

Anthony John De Ruyter

Paul C Melcher

Paul S Thompson

Timothy S Dyer

Robert P Akins

Silvia De Dea

J Martin Algots

William Peter Van Drent

Jean-Marc Hueber

Shahryar Rokni

Alexey Sergeevich Kuznetsov

Paolo Zambon

Marcus Adrianus Van De Kerkhof

Tibor Juhasz

R Kyle Webb

Thomas Hofmann

Steven Merrill Harrington

Matthew Graham

Thomas D Steiger

Toshihiko Ishihara

Steven Chang

Rostislav Rokitski

Vahan A Senekerimyan

Alexander Anthony Schafgans

Fedor Trintchouk

Rajasekhar Rao

James K Howey

Stanley Cruz Aguilar

Alex P Ivaschenko

Cory Alan Stinson

An extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV) source, including: a vessel having an inner vessel wall and an intermediate focus (IF) region; an EUV collector disposed inside the vessel, the EUV collector including a reflective surface configured to reflect EUV radiation toward the intermediate focus region, the reflective surface configured to directionally face the IF region of the vessel; a showerhead disposed along at least a portion of the inner vessel wall, the showerhead including a plurality of nozzles configured to introduce gas into the vessel; and one or more exhausts configured to remove gas introduced into the vessel, the one or more exhausts being oriented along at least a portion of the inner vessel wall so that the gas is caused to flow away from the EUV collector.

Guiding device and associated system

Disclosed is an apparatus and a method in which multiple, e.g., two or more pulses from a single laser source are applied to source material prior to application of a main ionizing pulse in which the multiple pulses are generated by a common laser source. The first pulse is directed towards the source material when the source material is at a first position and the second pulse is directed towards the source material when the source material is at a second position.

Laser system for source material conditioning in an EUV light source

Provided is an optical element for a lithographic apparatus. The optical element includes a capping layer that includes oxygen vacancies therein. The oxygen vacancies prevent attack of the capping layer by preventing hydrogen and other species from penetrating the capping layer and underlying layers. The capping layer provides a low hydrogen recombination rate enabling hydrogen to clean the surface of the optical element. The capping layer may include an alloyed metal, a mixed metal oxide or a doped metal oxide and it may be a ruthenium capping layer that includes one or more dopants therein.

Oxygen-loss resistant top coating for optical elements

An amplified optical beam is provided to a region that receives a target including target material, an interaction between the amplified optical beam and the target converting at least some of the target material from a first form to a second form to form a light-emitting plasma; first data comprising information related to the amplified optical beam is accessed; second data comprising information related to the light-emitting plasma is accessed; and an amount of the target material converted from the first form to the second form is determined. The determination is based on at least the first data and the second data, and the second form of the target material is less dense than the first form of the target material.

System for monitoring a plasma

Disclosed is a system and method for generating EUV radiation in which a laser is used in a multistage process to illuminate without altering a target material and then irradiate the target material to alter a target material with the illumination stage being used to determine the timing for firing during the irradiation stage or stages.

Laser system for target metrology and alteration in an EUV light source

Degradation of the reflectivity of one or more reflective optical elements in a system for generating EUV radiation is reduced by the controlled introduction of a gas into a vacuum chamber containing the optical element. The gas may be added to the flow of another gas such as hydrogen or alternated with the introduction of hydrogen radicals.

Prolonging optical element lifetime in an EUV lithography system

Degradation of the reflectivity of one or more reflective optical elements in a system (SO) for generating EUV radiation is reduced by the controlled introduction of a gas into a vacuum chamber () containing the optical element. The gas may be added to the flow of another gas such as hydrogen or alternated with the introduction of hydrogen radicals.

A device is disclosed herein which may comprise a droplet generator producing droplets of target material; a sensor providing an intercept time signal when a droplet reaches a preselected location; a delay circuit coupled with said sensor, the delay circuit generating a trigger signal delayed from the intercept time signal; a laser source responsive to a trigger signal to produce a laser pulse; and a system controlling said delay circuit to provide a trigger signal delayed from the intercept time by a first delay time to generate a light pulse that is focused on a droplet and a trigger signal delayed from the intercept time by a second delay time to generate a light pulse which is not focused on a droplet.

EUV light source with subsystem(s) for maintaining LPP drive laser output during EUV non-output periods

An optical source for an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography tool includes a light-generation system including a light-generation module; an optical amplifier including a gain medium associated with a gain band, the gain medium configured to amplify light having a wavelength in the gain band; and a wavelength-based optical filter system on a beam path between the light-generation module and the optical amplifier, the wavelength-based optical filter system including at least one optical element configured to allow light having a wavelength in a first set of wavelengths to propagate on the beam path and to remove light having a wavelength in a second set of wavelengths from the beam path, the first set of wavelengths and the second set of wavelengths including different wavelengths in the gain band of the optical amplifier.

Wavelength-based optical filtering

A reflective EUV optic such as a collector mirror configured as an array of facets that are spaced apart to form respective gaps between adjacent facets. The gaps are used as inlets for gas flow across one of the facets such that flow is introduced parallel to the optic surface. The facets can be made with offsets such that loss of reflective area of the EUV optic can be minimized. The gas facilitates removal of target material from the surface of the facets.

Faceted EUV optical element

Disclosed is an EUV system in which a source control loop is established to maintain and optimize debris flux while not unduly affecting optimum EUV generation conditions. One or more temperature sensors, e.g., thermocouples may be installed in the vessel to measure respective local gas temperatures. The respective local temperature as measured by the one or more thermocouples can be used as one or more inputs to the source control loop. The source control loop may then adjust the laser targeting to permit optimization of debris generation and deposition while not affecting EUV production, thus extending the lifetime of the source and its collector.

Method of controlling debris in an EUV light source

Apparatus for and method of controlling debris in an EUV light source

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Igor Vladimirovich Fomenkov