Cymer, Inc.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

Scot T Smith

Alexander Igorevich Ershov

Richard L Sandstrom

Palash P Das

William N Partlo

Igor Vladimirovich Fomenkov

Daniel J W Brown

Richard M Ness

Richard C Ujazdowski

Herve A Besaucele

Eckehard D Onkels

David S Knowles

David Wayne Myers

William G Hulburd

Xiaojiang Jason Pan

Stuart L Anderson

Jeffrey Oicles

Brian C Klene

Steve Grove

R Kyle Webb

German E Rylov

Alexei Lukashev

Roy S Luoma

Michael L Blume

Optical systems and methods in accordance with some embodiments discussed herein can receive one or more beams of light from the system's field of view. Internal optical components can then direct the beam of light, including splitting the beam of light, rotating at least one of the split beams of light, and displacing one or more of the beams of light, such that the split beams of light are parallel to each other. Each beam of light may then be directed onto at least one linear detector array. The linear detector array can transform the light into electrical signals that can be processed and presented in a human-readable display.

Systems and methods for beam splitting for imaging

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

Providing a high peak power short pulse duration gas discharge laser output pulse comprises a pulse stretcher a laser output pulse optical delay initiating optic diverting a portion of the output laser pulse into an optical delay having an optical delay path and comprising a plurality of confocal resonators in series aligned to deliver an output of the optical delay to the laser output pulse optical delay initiating optic. The plurality of confocal resonators comprises four confocal resonators comprising a twelve pass four mirror arrangement. An apparatus and method may comprise a plurality, e.g., two pulse stretchers in series and may include spatial coherency metrology.

Laser output light pulse stretcher

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 a Flaser 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 selection package for selecting the strongest Fspectral line.

[object Object]

The present invention provides a modular high repetition rate ultraviolet gas discharge laser light source for a production line machine. The system includes an enclosed and purged beam path for delivery the laser beam to a desired location such as the entrance port of the production line machine. In preferred embodiments, the production line machine is a lithography machine and 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. This MOPA system is capable of output pulse energies approximately double the comparable single chamber laser system with greatly improved beam quality. A pulse stretcher more than doubles the output pulse length resulting in a reduction in pulse power (mJ/ns) as compared to prior art laser systems. This preferred embodiment is capable of providing illumination at a lithography system wafer plane which is approximately constant throughout the operating life of the lithography system, despite substantial degradation of optical components.

Laser lithography light source with beam delivery

A method and apparatus for laser light pulse stretching is disclosed which may comprise a beam splitter in the path of a laser output light pulse beam; selected to pass a first percent of the energy of a first input pulse of the laser output light pulse beam along a laser output light pulse beam output path as a first output pulse and to reflect a second percent of the energy of the laser output light pulse beam into a first delayed beam; an optical delay path receiving the first delayed beam and returning the first delayed beam to the beam splitter in an orientation such that a third percent of the first delayed beam is reflected into the output path as a second output pulse and a fourth percent is passed into the optical delay path as a second delayed beam; the optical delay path receiving the second delayed beam and returning the second delayed beam to the beam splitter in an orientation such that the third percent of the second delayed beam is reflected into the output path as a third output pulse and the fourth percent of the second delayed beam is passed into the optical delay path as a third delayed beam; the optical delay path receiving the third delayed beam and returning the third delayed beam to the beam splitter in an orientation such that the third percent of the third delayed beam is reflected into the output path as a fourth output pulse; the first input pulse being a first pulse in a plurality of pulses output from a prior pulse stretcher, each of a plurality of succeeding input pulses comprising the output of the prior pulse stretcher resulting from the stretching of a narrow band laser light output pulse, forming successive first, second, third and fourth output pulses, the combination of which forms a pulse stretcher having an output with TIS of at least 200 ns. The optical delay path may be formed of a plurality of at least eight reflecting mirrors and contained in an elongated enclosure having first and second end plates mounting a first group of at least four of the at least eight reflecting mirrors mounted on the first mounting surface symmetrically about a center axis of the optical delay path and a second group of at least four of the at least eight reflecting mirrors mounted on the second mounting surface symmetrically about the center axis. The mirrors may be staggered in a predefined pattern, e.g., a circular pattern. The delay path may lie in a plurality of planes. The apparatus may be part of a laser system, part of a beam delivery system or an interface between the two.

Long delay and high TIS pulse stretcher

Growing community of inventors

Winter Springs, FL, United States of America

Scot T Smith