Cymer, Inc.

Kaiser Systems, Inc.

Jeffrey Oicles

William N Partlo

Igor Vladimirovich Fomenkov

Alexander Igorevich Ershov

Richard L Sandstrom

Palash P Das

Daniel J W Brown

Richard M Ness

Richard C Ujazdowski

Herve A Besaucele

Eckehard D Onkels

Stuart L Anderson

David S Knowles

William G Hulburd

David Wayne Myers

Scott T Smith

Scot T Smith

David M Johns

Plash P Das

David W Meyers

An oscillator-amplifier gas discharge laser system and method is disclosed which may comprise a first laser unit which may comprise a first discharge region which may contain an excimer or molecular fluorine lasing gas medium; a first pair of electrodes defining the first discharge region containing the lasing gas medium, a line narrowing unit for narrowing a spectral bandwidth of output laser light pulse beam pulses produced in said first discharge region; a second laser unit which may comprise a second discharge chamber which may contain an excimer or molecular fluorine lasing gas medium; a second pair of electrodes defining the second discharge region containing the lasing gas medium; a pulse power system providing electrical pulses to the first pair of electrodes and to the second pair of electrodes producing gas discharges in the lasing gas medium between the respective first and second pair of electrodes, and laser parameter control mechanism modifying a selected parameter of a selected laser output light pulse beam pulse produced by said gas discharge laser system by controlling the timing of the occurrence of the gas discharge between the first pair of electrodes and the occurrence of the gas discharge between the second pair of electrodes.

Very narrow band, two chamber, high rep-rate gas discharge laser system

A high voltage pulse generator utilizes an even number of Marx cells using L-C inversion topology. Each Marx cell is associated with an individual inverter transformer having a primary winding connected to the output of an ac power supply such as a series resonant inverter. The secondary of each inverter transformer is half-wave rectified to charge the energy storage capacitors in each Marx cell. A distributed voltage sensing scheme can be provided for accurate feedback to the inverter's controller. An inductive element can be used to achieve a magnetic diode effect in the L-C inversion circuit to reduce component stress and improve efficiency. A transformer-coupled floating gate drive circuit is used to provide local power conditioning and trigger timing for discharge of the energy storage capacitors.

High voltage pulse generator

An injection seeded modular gas discharge laser system capable of producing high quality pulsed laser beams at pulse rates of about 4,000 Hz or greater and at pulse energies of about 5 mJ or greater. Two separate discharge chambers are provided, one of which is a part of a master oscillator producing a very narrow band seed beam which is amplified in the second discharge chamber. The chambers can be controlled separately permitting separate optimization of wavelength parameters in the master oscillator and optimization of pulse energy parameters in the amplifying chamber. A preferred embodiment in an ArF excimer laser system configured as a MOPA and specifically designed for use as a light source for integrated circuit lithography. In the preferred MOPA embodiment, each chamber comprises a single tangential fan providing sufficient gas flow to permit operation at pulse rates of 4000 Hz or greater by clearing debris from the discharge region in less time than the approximately 0.25 milliseconds between pulses. The master oscillator is equipped with a line narrowing package having a very fast tuning mirror capable of controlling centerline wavelength on a pulse-to-pulse basis at repetition rates of 4000 Hz or greater to a precision of less than 0.2 pm.

Very narrow band, two chamber, high reprate gas discharge laser system

Very narrow band, two chamber, high rep rate gas discharge laser system

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Jeffrey Oicles