Gigaphoton Inc.

Komatsu Corporation

Ushio Inc.

Takashi Matsunaga

Osamu Wakabayashi

Hiroaki Tsushima

Yasufumi Kawasuji

Akihiko Kurosu

Takanobu Ishihara

Junichi Fujimoto

Takahito Kumazaki

Kouji Kakizaki

Takayuki Yabu

Takeshi Ohta

Masanori Yashiro

Hiroyuki Masuda

Hirotoshi Inoue

Yosuke Ishizuka

Hakaru Mizoguchi

Tsukasa Hori

Takeshi Asayama

Hiroshi Umeda

Hisakazu Katsuumi

Shinji Okazaki

Kazuya Takezawa

Hiroyuki Ikeda

Tetsutarou Takano

Toru Abe

Akinori Matsui

There may be provided a laser unit including a display configured to display one or both of electric power consumed by the laser unit and electric energy consumed by the laser unit.

Laser unit and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium

A laser chamber including a first space and a second space in communication with the first space may include: a first discharge electrode disposed in the first space; a second discharge electrode disposed in the first space to face the first discharge electrode; a fan disposed in the first space and configured to flow laser gas between the first discharge electrode and the second discharge electrode; a peaking condenser disposed in the second space; and an electrical insulating member configured to partition the first space and the second space from one another, and disposed to allow the laser gas to pass through between the first space and the second space.

Laser chamber

A laser apparatus may include a first laser resonator configured to generate a laser beam, a first optical element configured to adjust a divergence in a first direction of the laser beam, a second optical element configured to adjust a divergence in a second direction of the laser beam, a measuring unit configured to measure the divergence in the first direction and the divergence in the second direction of the laser beam, and a controller configured to control one or both of the first optical element and the second optical element based on the divergence in the first direction and the divergence in the second direction of the laser beam both measured by the measuring unit.

Laser apparatus

A laser apparatus according to embodiment may include: a laser chamber filled with a laser gain medium; a pair of electrodes disposed in the laser chamber; a charger configured to apply a charge voltage for causing a discharge to occur between the pair of the electrodes; a pulse power module configured to covert the charge voltage applied by the charger into a short pulsed voltage, and apply the short pulsed voltage between the pair of the electrodes; and a controller configured to calculate input energies Ein applied to the pair of the electrodes based on the charge voltage, calculate an integration value Einsum of the input energies Ein by integrating the calculated input energies Ein, and determine whether the integration value Einsum exceeds an integration lifetime value Einsumlife of input energy or not.

Laser apparatus and method of controlling laser apparatus

There is provided a method of controlling the wavelength of a laser beam. The method includes measuring an absolute wavelength of the laser beam; calculating a difference between a reference wavelength and the absolute wavelength of the laser beam; and adjusting the reference wavelength of the laser beam based on the difference between the reference wavelength and the absolute wavelength of the laser beam, at an interval shorter than an interval for which the absolute wavelength of the laser beam is measured.

Method of controlling wavelength of laser beam and laser apparatus

A two-beam interference apparatus may include a wafer stage on which a wafer may be set, a beam splitter to split first laser light into second and third laser light having a beam intensity distribution elongated in a first direction within a surface of the wafer, and an optical system to guide the second and third laser light onto the wafer. The wafer is irradiated with the second laser light from a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and the third laser light from a third direction perpendicular to the first direction but different from the second direction, to thereby cause interference of the second and third laser light on the wafer. This apparatus increases the accuracy of the two-beam interference exposure.

Two-beam interference apparatus and two-beam interference exposure system

A laser apparatus may comprise: a laser chamber configured to include a laser gain medium; a pair of electrodes disposed in the laser chamber; an energy detector configured to measure pulse energy of laser beams outputted by discharging between the pair of the electrodes; an optical element disposed on a light path of the laser beams; and a controller configured to calculate an integration value of absorption energy at the optical element, and determine whether the integration value exceeds a lifetime integration value of the optical element based on the pulse energy of the laser beams.

A discharge-pumped gas laser device may include a laser chamber, a pair of discharge electrodes provided in the laser chamber, a fan with a magnetic bearing being provided in the laser chamber and configured to be capable of circulating a gas in the laser chamber, a housing configured to contain the laser chamber, and a magnetic bearing controller connected to the magnetic bearing electrically, being capable of controlling the magnetic bearing, and provided in the housing separately from the laser chamber.

Discharge-pumped gas laser device

An excimer laser may include a frame, a base plate on which the frame is disposed, an excimer laser configured to oscillate and output laser light by discharge-pumping within a chamber containing a laser gas, an optical element that is mounted upon the frame and that is disposed in the optical path of the outputted laser light and a heat removal mechanism connected to both the frame and the base plate.

Excimer laser and laser device

To provide an excimer laser device and method in which the frequency of full gas exchange within the laser chamber is reduced, and more preferably full gas exchange is made unnecessary. The gas supply device and gas exhaust device are controlled so that the laser gas in the laser chamber is partially exchanged in a gas exchange quantity that maintains the quantity of impurities in the laser chamber at or below a fixed level. Also, the gas exchange quantity is obtained using the total quantity of output light energy reduction A, the total gas pressure in the laser chamber P, and output light energy reduction quantity per unit time k, for the case where partial gas exchange is repeated infinitely in the laser chamber.

Excimer laser device, laser gas exchange method and partial gas exchange quantity calculation method

The invention provides a discharge electrodes connecting structure for a laser apparatus in which a thickness of the return plate is set to be within an optimum range, and a laser apparatus employing the same. Accordingly, a laser apparatus is provided with a laser chamber ( ) sealing a laser gas, a pair of anode ( A) and cathode ( B) provided within the laser chamber in an opposing manner, generating a discharge so as to excite a laser gas flowing therebetween and oscillating a laser beam, a conductive anode base ( ) holding the anode, an insulative cathode base ( ) holding the cathode, and a return plate ( ) electrically connecting the anode base to the laser chamber so as to supply a current to the anode. A thickness (t) of the return plate is set to be equal to or more than 100 &mgr;m and equal to or less than 500 &mgr;m, and the return plate is arranged substantially in parallel to a gas flow of the laser gas flowing between the discharge electrodes.

Discharge electrodes connecting structure for laser apparatus and laser apparatus therewith

In a preionization discharge circuit when a switch SW is turned on, an electric current i from a constant current source flows through a loop of a coil L en electrode A and the switch SW When it is assumed that an inductance of the coil L is L (H) and the current i flowing through the coil L is I (A), energy EL of (1/2)&middot;L&middot;I{circumflex over ( )}2 is accumulated in the coil Meanwhile, in a preionization discharge control section a preionization discharge timing signal (namely, a corona emission timing signal) Ydt is output to the switch SW after lapse of a time ty (&equals;Tds&minus;tyd) after a pulse oscillation synchronizing signal TRL is received so that preionization discharge is caused earlier by a preset time tyd than the preionization discharge timing signal Ydt. When the switch SW is switched from on to off according to the corona emission timing signal Ydt, the energy EL accumulated in the coil L is abruptly supplied to the electrode A of the preionization electrode Then, an electric field is produced between the electrode A and an electrode plate C and, when the electric field of the preionization electrode rises to a predetermined preionization start electric field, a corona discharge is produced in a tube B as a dielectric of the preionization electrode to flow an electric current i and a main discharge gap is preionized before the main discharge is caused by main discharge electrodes and

Discharge device for pulsed laser

The amount of pre-ionization by the pre-ionization electrode provided on the gas outflow side of the main discharge space, out of at least one pair of pre-ionization electrodes, is adjusted so as to attain the desired beam profile. As a result, the pre-ionization intensity of the laser gas remaining on the gas outflow side of the main discharge space is made lower than the pre-ionization intensity of the laser gas flowing into the main discharge space. In other words, the intensity of the laser light on the gas outflow side of the main discharge space is made weaker than the intensity of the laser light in the center of the main discharge space. Accordingly, the location of the maximum light intensity of the beam profile does not deviate from the center of the discharge width. Also, since the pre-ionization electrodes are provided on both the gas inflow side and the gas outflow side of the main discharge space, the pre-ionization intensity of the laser gas on the gas inflow side of the main discharge space is never stronger than the pre-ionization intensity of the laser gas present at the center of the main discharge space.

Growing community of inventors

Oyama, Japan

Takashi Matsunaga