International Business Machines Corporation

Picarro, Inc.

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC

John Allen Hoffnagle

Chris W Rella

Sze Meng Tan

Carl Michael Jefferson

Frances Anne Houle

William Dinan Hinsberg

Martha Inez Sanchez

Alejandro Dario Farinas

Hans J Coufal

Ralph G Devoe

Richard G Brewer

Kenneth L Foster

Reinald Kallenbach

Robert Dennis Miller

Alan Edward Rosenbluth

Gregory Michael Wallraff

David Robert Medeiros

Alexey Y Lvov

Gregg M Gallatin

Eric R Crosson

Nakgeuon Seong

Kenneth W Turteltaub

James Ian Lee

Ronald L Gordon

Graham Bench

Ted Ognibene

Hongbing Chen

Libor Vycklicky

Derek Gregory Fleck

Alan Daniel McCartt

Nabil Saad

Gerald Thomas Sorensen

Improved cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy is provided using a piecewise tunable laser by using a lookup table for laser tuning that is configured specifically for this application. In preferred embodiments this is done in combination with a laser control strategy that provides precise wavelength determination using cavity modes of the instrument as a reference.

Cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy using a piecewise tunable laser and hierarchical wavelength determination

Improved optical absorption spectroscopy of species having broad spectral features is provided by choosing frequencies to cover the spectral feature(s) of interest, where the frequencies are slightly adjusted as needed to avoid narrow spectral features from interfering chemical species (i.e., clutter). The resulting clutter avoidance provides improved optical spectroscopy of species having broad spectral features.

Clutter avoidance in wide-band cavity ring-down data acquisition

Interleaved data acquisition in optical spectroscopy is used to provide interference correction for time-varying interference. Measurements at a reference frequency are used to provide an estimate of the interference. These reference measurements are interleaved with the remaining measurements in order to provide estimates of the interference vs. time at relevant times. The interference being corrected can be spectrally structured or unstructured.

Cavity ring-down spectroscopy having interleaved data acquisition for interference mitigation

Optical spectrometer apparatus, systems, and methods for analysis of carbon-14 including a resonant optical cavity configured to accept a sample gas including carbon-14, an optical source configured to deliver optical radiation to the resonant optical cavity, an optical detector configured to detect optical radiation emitted from the resonant cavity and to provide a detector signal; and a processor configured to compute a carbon-14 concentration from the detector signal, wherein computing the carbon-14 concentration from the detector signal includes fitting a spectroscopic model to a measured spectrogram, wherein the spectroscopic model accounts for contributions from one or more interfering species that spectroscopically interfere with carbon-14.

Spectroscopic quantification of extremely rare molecular species in the presence of interfering optical absorption

For cavity enhanced optical spectroscopy, the cavity modes are used as a frequency reference. Data analysis methods are employed that assume the data points are at equally spaced frequencies. Parameters of interest such as line width, integrated absorption etc. can be determined from such data without knowledge of the frequencies of any of the data points. Methods for determining the FSR index of each ring-down event are also provided.

Ring-down binning in FSR hopping mode

For cavity enhanced optical spectroscopy, the cavity modes are used as a frequency reference. Data analysis methods are employed that assume the data points are at equally spaced frequencies. Parameters of interest such as line width, integrated absorption etc. can be determined from such data without knowledge of the frequencies of any of the data points.

Regular, stable optical frequency scale for cavity enhanced optical spectroscopy

Compositions comprising photobleachable organic materials can be bleached by 193 nm light, and brought back to their original state by stimuli after exposure. (reversible photobleaching). We use these compositions in art-known contrast enhancement layers and as a part of a photoresist, especially in optical lithography processes for semiconductor fabrication. They may comprise polymers such as organo-silicon polymers, polymers comprising polymers of aromatic hydroxyl compounds such as phenol and naphthol such as phenol formaldehyde polymers and naphthol formaldehyde polymers styrene polymers and phenolic acrylate polymers or cyclic materials comprising: where the radicals 'R' and 'Y' represent organo, or substituted organo moieties, Structures I, II, and III represent basic organic skeletons and can be unsubstituted or substituted in any available position with any one or combinations of multiple substituents.

Bleachable materials for lithography

An optical apparatus used for the efficient characterization of photoresist material includes at least one grating interferometer having at least two gratings that together define an optical recombination plane. An optical stop blocks any zeroth order beam from propagating through the apparatus. A reticle positioned at the recombination plane has at least one fiducial marking therein. A lithographic imaging optical tool is positioned so that its input optical plane is substantially coincident with the optical recombination plane and its output imaging plane is substantially coincident with photoresist on a wafer. The apparatus writes in the photoresist latent, sinusoidal grating patterns, preferably of different spatial frequencies, as well as at least one fiducial mark whose pattern is determined by the marking in the reticle. After the photoresist is developed, its intrinsic spatial resolution may be determined by automated means.

Apparatus for characterization of photoresist resolution, and method of use

A method and system is provided for computing lithographic images that may take into account non-scalar effects such as lens birefringence, resist stack effects, tailored source polarizations, and blur effects of the mask and the resist. A generalized bilinear kernel is formed, which is independent of the mask transmission function, and which may then be treated using a decomposition to allow rapid computation of an image that includes such non-scalar effects. Weighted pre-images may be formed from a coherent sum of pre-computed convolutions of the dominant eigenfunctions of the generalized bilinear kernel with the appropriate mask polygon sectors. The image at a point may be formed from the incoherent sum of the weighted pre-images over all of the dominant eigenfunctions of the generalized bilinear kernel. The resulting image can then be used to perform model-based optical proximity correction (MBOPC).

Fast model-based optical proximity correction

Optical devices achromatize the output from a highly efficient refractive laser beam reshaper, thereby allowing collimated, diffraction limited flat-top laser beams to be generated over a wide spectral interval, e.g., over 200 nm in the visible. While the beam reshaper may utilize refractive aspheric lenses, the achromatizers use cost effective spherical refractive elements.

Apparatus for achromatizing optical beams

An optical beam transformation system includes a first and a second optical element, each of which has a non-reentrant surface. The system transforms a substantially non-uniform optical input beam (such as a Gaussian) to a substantially uniform output beam. The first and second optical elements are arranged in either a Keplerian or Galilean configuration. The aspheric surface of the second optical element is related to the aspheric surface of the first optical element by a ray-tracing function that maps substantially all of an input light beam that is incident on the first optical element to a collimated output light beam that is output from the second optical element. Preferably, the output light beam has a Fermi-Dirac intensity distribution, and the ray-tracing function maps the input light beam to the output beam out to the (1/e) intensity radius of the input light beam.

System for converting optical beams to collimated flat-top beams

An optical system having a first positive optical element having an aspherical surface; and a second positive optical element having an aspherical surface. The first and second optical elements are arranged in a Keplerian configuration. The aspheric surface of the second optical element is related to the aspheric surface of the first optical element by a ray-tracing function that maps substantially all of an input light beam that is incident to the first optical element to a collimated output light beam that is output from the second optical element. The input light beam has a first axially-symmetric intensity distribution, such as a Gaussian intensity distribution, and the output light beam has a second axially-symmetric intensity distribution, such as a continuous, sigmoidal intensity distribution. Preferably, the output light beam has a Fermi-Dirac intensity distribution, and the ray-tracing function maps the input light beam to the output beam to a 1/e,intensity radius of the input light beam.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

John Allen Hoffnagle