Xtreme Technologies Gmbh

Ushio Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Max Christian Schuermann

Thomas Missalla

Juergen Kleinschmidt

Guido Schriever

Denis Bolshukhin

Christof Metzmacher

Imtiaz Ahmad

Lutz Mueller

Bernd Seher

Alexander Christian Keller

Lutz Dippmann

Boris Tkachenko

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing mirror shells of a nested shells grazing incidence mirror, in particular for EUV radiation and/or X-rays. In the method a blank of a bulk material is provided and machined to form a mirror body of the shell. Mechanical structures are integrated and/or attached to the mirror body during and/or after the machining step. The mechanical structures are required for mounting and/or operating the mirror shells. After these steps the optical surface is formed on the mirror body by diamond turning. The proposed method allows the manufacturing of mirror shells of a nested shells grazing incidence mirror at low costs with high optical quality which may also be refurbished one or several times.

Method of manufacturing mirror shells of a nested shells grazing incidence mirror

Spatial acquisition of measurement data over a cross section of a high-energy, high-intensity radiation beam bundle without impairment of measuring accuracy due to saturation or degradation of detectors occurs by imaging an entire cross section of the beam bundle on a shading element, the cross section being separated successively into partial beam bundles having reduced cross sections and reduced intensity through movement of at least one opening, whereby measurement values of the partial beam bundles passing the opening are associated temporally and spatially with positions of the opening.

Method for the spatially resolved measurement of parameters in a cross section of a beam bundle of high-energy radiation of high intensity

The invention is related to a gas discharge-based radiation source which emits short-wavelength radiation, wherein an emitter is ionized and compressed by pulse-shaped currents between two electrodes arranged in a vacuum chamber and is excited to form an emitting plasma. According to the invention, the plasma is preserved by means of a high-frequency sequence of pulse-shaped currents the pulse repetition period of which is adjusted so as to be shorter than a lifetime of the plasma so that the plasma is kept periodically alternating between a high-energy state of an emitting compressed plasma and a low-energy state of a relaxing plasma. For exciting the relaxing plasma to the compressed plasma, excitation energy is coupled into the relaxing plasma by making use of pulse-shaped currents with repetition frequencies between 50 kHz and 4 MHz and pulse widths equal to the pulse repetition period.

Method and apparatus for the generation of short-wavelength radiation by means of a gas discharge-based high-frequency, high-current discharge

The invention is related to the adjustment of characteristics of a beam bundle of high-energy radiation emitted from a plasma, particularly for applications in semiconductor lithography. For acquiring and adjusting characteristics of a beam bundle of high-energy radiation emitted from a plasma and focused by means of collector optics, an intensity distribution of the radiation is acquired over the cross section of a convergent beam bundle in a measuring plane perpendicular to the optical axis in front of an intermediate focus of the collector optics, and intensity values are recorded in defined sectors for a quantity of reception regions of a measuring device which are aligned with different radii concentric to the optical axis, and measured quantities and control variables are determined from a comparison of the intensity values of different sectors for aligning the collector optics.

Method and arrangement for the adjustment of characteristics of a beam bundle of high-energy radiation emitted from a plasma

The object of the invention is to provide a transmission filter for EUV radiation which has a sufficiently narrow transmission window to characterize EUV radiation in a narrowly defined spectral region. This object is met by providing a transmission layer system having at least one uranium-containing layer.

Narrow-band transmission filter for EUV radiation

A plasma radiation source is improved in such a way that the lifetime of the optics which is limited by the influence of debris is appreciably increased. A gas curtain through which the radiation proceeding from a source region in a vacuum chamber is emitted at a defined solid angle for debris suppression along an axis of the mean propagation direction of the radiation exits as a radially directed supersonic gas jet from a propulsion nozzle of a gas jet vacuum pump, which propulsion nozzle is arranged on the axis. The gas curtain is directed to an annular mixing nozzle that is arranged coaxial to the axis and is guided out of the vacuum chamber by a diffuser. This makes it possible to use source arrangements having an optimal conversion efficiency but extensive debris.

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Luebbecke, Germany

Max Christian Schuermann