Nikon Corporation

Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metal Corporation

Kouji Muramatsu

Masaya Yamamoto

Osamu Tanitsu

Kazuhiro Shimoda

Hirohisa Tanaka

Tomio Yamakawa

Yuji Inoue

Yasushi Mizuno

Hisashi Nishinaga

Hiroyuki Hirota

Kouji Yamane

Norio Miyake

Syusuke Shimooka

Ryuji Takaya

Risa Yoshimoto

There is provided a piercing apparatus in which the occurrence of an inner surface flaw in a hollow shell is suppressed. A piercing apparatus () according to an embodiment of the present invention is the piercing apparatus () which pierces a billet (). The piercing apparatus () has a plug (). The plug () has a through hole (). The through hole () extends along the central axis, and allows the central portion of the billet () being pierced to pass therethrough.

Piercing apparatus, plug used for piercing apparatus, and method for producing seamless steel pipe

An illumination optical apparatus capable of forming a pupil intensity distribution of desired shape and illuminance and, in turn, capable of realizing illumination conditions of great variety. The apparatus has a spatial light modulation unit composed of a first spatial light modulator and a second spatial light modulator arranged in an order of incidence of light, and a distribution forming optical system to form a predetermined light intensity distribution on an illumination pupil, based on a beam having traveled via the first spatial light modulator and the second spatial light modulator. The first spatial light modulator has a plurality of first optical elements which are two-dimensionally arranged and postures of which each are individually controlled. The second spatial light modulator has a plurality of second optical elements which are two-dimensionally arranged in correspondence to the first optical elements and postures of which each are individually controlled.

Spatial light modulation unit, illumination optical apparatus, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method

An illumination optical system is one for illuminating a surface to be illuminated with light from a light source, which has a distribution forming optical system including an optical integrator and forming a pupil intensity distribution on an illumination pupil located behind the optical integrator, and an optical attenuator arranged on a predetermined surface in an optical path behind the optical integrator and having an attenuation characteristic of varying an attenuation rate depending upon an angle of incidence to the predetermined surface.

Illumination optical system, exposure apparatus, device manufacturing method, compensation filter, and exposure optical system

An illumination optical apparatus is able to quickly perform switching between polarization states of illumination light in a first region and in a second region. The illumination optical apparatus of the present invention for illuminating a surface to be illuminated on the basis of light from a light source is provided with an optical integrator of a wavefront division type arranged in an optical path between the light source and the surface to be illuminated and including a plurality of wavefront division regions; and a polarization changing member for changing a polarization state of at least one beam out of a beam incident to a first region in the wavefront division regions of the optical integrator and a beam incident to a second region in the wavefront division regions of the optical integrator.

Illuminating optical apparatus, exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method

This invention relates to an illumination optical apparatus capable of forming a pupil intensity distribution of a desired shape and desired illuminance and, in turn, capable of realizing illumination conditions of great variety. The illumination optical apparatus has a spatial light modulation unit composed of a first spatial light modulator and a second spatial light modulator arranged in an order of incidence of light, and a distribution forming optical system to form a predetermined light intensity distribution on an illumination pupil, based on a beam having traveled via the first spatial light modulator and the second spatial light modulator. The first spatial light modulator has a plurality of first optical elements which are two-dimensionally arranged and postures of which each are individually controlled. The second spatial light modulator has a plurality of second optical elements which are two-dimensionally arranged in correspondence to the first optical elements and postures of which each are individually controlled.

Growing community of inventors

Nakakoma-gun, Japan

Kouji Muramatsu