Cymer, Inc.

Asml Netherlands B.v.

Thomas Patrick Duffey

William N Partlo

Richard L Sandstrom

Joshua Jon Thornes

Richard G Morton

Richard C Ujazdowski

Brian E King

Walter Dale Gillespie

Palash P Das

Richard M Ness

Peter Clarke Newman

Herman Philip Godfried

Thomas Frederick Allen Bibby, Jr

Igor Vladimirovich Fomenkov

Tom A Watson

Herve A Besaucele

Toshihiko Ishihara

Daniel Anthony Rothweil

Wilhelmus Patrick Elisabeth Maria Op 't Root

Frank Everts

James J Ferrell

Alexander Igorevich Ershov

Kevin M O'Brien

Thomas Hofmann

Robert A Bergstedt

Eckehard D Onkels

Thomas D Steiger

John T Melchior

Paul C Melcher

Paul S Thompson

Bryan George Moosman

Rostislav Rokitski

Rajasekhar Rao

Omar Zurita

Robert A Shannon

Hong Ye

Daniel Brown

John Viatella

Slava Rokitski

Zhongquan Zhao

Alex Ershov

Abhishek Subramanian

Rong (Lauren) Liu

Ray Cybulski

Daniel J W Brown

R Kyle Webb

Xiaojiang Jason Pan

John Martin Algots

Steven Merrill Harrington

Scott T Smith

Donald G Larson

Janine K Kardokus

Eric Anders Mason

Stuart L Anderson

Robert G Ozarski

David Wayne Myers

Timothy S Dyer

Vladimir B Fleurov

Rahul Ahlawat

I Roger Oliver

Gamaralalage G Padmabandu

Curtis L Rettig

Ronald L Spangler

Shahryar Rokni

Jean-Marc Hueber

Russell Allen Burdt

Yingbo Zhao

Paolo Zambon

Robert B Saethre

Brian Strate

Dmitry Berger

James H Azzola

Vladimir A Kulgeyko

David M Johns

Mengxiong Gong

Tae H Chung

Joshua C Brown

Janine Kardokus

Carl E Tedesco, Ii

Terance Hilsabeck

Siqi Luo

A deep ultraviolet (DUV) optical system includes: an optical source system including: a plurality of optical oscillators; a beam combiner; and a beam control apparatus between the optical oscillators and the beam combiner. The beam combiner is configured to receive and direct light emitted from any of the optical oscillators toward a scanner apparatus as an exposure light beam, and the beam control apparatus is configured to determine whether the beam combiner receives light from a particular one of the optical oscillators. The DUV optical lithography system also includes a control system coupled to the optical source system, the control system configured to: determine whether a condition exists in the DUV optical system, and based on a determination that the condition exists, perform a calibration action in a subset of the optical oscillators.

Control system for a plurality of deep ultraviolet optical oscillators

A method of generating a test for a radiation source for a lithographic apparatus comprises a step of receiving data corresponding to a plurality of firing patterns of the radiation source. The method further comprises the step of analyzing the data to determine parameters for configuring one or more further firing patterns for testing the radiation source. The parameters are determined such that a stability of the radiation source when executing the one or more further firing patterns configured using the parameters is substantially the same as, or within predefined bounds relative to, a stability of the radiation source when executing the plurality of firing patterns. Furthermore, parameters are determined such that a total duration of the one or more further firing patterns when executed by the radiation source will be less than a duration of the plurality of firing patterns when executed by the radiation source.

Radiation source testing

Disclosed are methods of and apparatus for extending a useful lifetime of a laser discharge chamber in which a polarity of an electrode positioned at a fixed position within the chamber is caused to be positive with respect to the polarity of a second electrode defining a discharge gap with the first electrode and the first electrode is made of a material that forms an erosion resistant surface when the first electrode is used and an anode. Also disclosed is an arrangement in which a first electrode is positionable with respect a second electrode defining a discharge gap with the second electrode and the position of the first electrode controlled to maintain the width of the gap within a predetermined range.

Method of and apparatus for extending electrode life in a laser chamber

A method includes driving, while producing a burst of pulses at a pulse repetition rate, a spectral feature adjuster among a set of discrete states at a frequency correlated with the pulse repetition rate; and in between the production of the bursts of pulses (while no pulses are being produced), driving the spectral feature adjuster according to a driving signal defined by a set of parameters. Each discrete state corresponds to a discrete value of a spectral feature. The method includes ensuring that the spectral feature adjuster is in one of the discrete states that corresponds to a discrete value of the spectral feature of the amplified light beam when a pulse in the next burst is produced by adjusting one or more of: an instruction to the lithography exposure apparatus, the driving signal to the spectral feature adjuster, and/or the instruction to the optical source.

Spectral feature selection and pulse timing control of a pulsed light beam

A method includes: producing a light beam made up of pulses having a wavelength in the deep ultraviolet range, each pulse having a first temporal coherence defined by a first temporal coherence length and each pulse being defined by a pulse duration; for one or more pulses, modulating the optical phase over the pulse duration of the pulse to produce a modified pulse having a second temporal coherence defined by a second temporal coherence length that is less than the first temporal coherence length of the pulse; forming a light beam of pulses at least from the modified pulses; and directing the formed light beam of pulses toward a substrate within a lithography exposure apparatus.

Reducing speckle in an excimer light source

Disclosed is an apparatus for and method of measuring the concentration of F2 in the laser gas used in an excimer laser. Quartz Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy is used to obtain a direct measurement of F2 concentration quickly and using only a small sample volume.

Apparatus for and method of sensing fluorine concentration

Methods and apparatus for processing an image of a beam generated by an optical system to extract information indicative of an extent of damage to optical elements in the optical system. Also disclosed is a beam image and analysis tool capable of acquiring an image of a beam at any one of a number of locations.

Lithography optics adjustment and monitoring

A metrology system is used for measuring a spectral feature of a pulsed light beam. The metrology system includes: a beam homogenizer in the path of the pulsed light beam, the beam homogenizer having an array of wavefront modification cells, with each cell having a surface area that matches a size of at least one of the spatial modes of the light beam; an optical frequency separation apparatus in the path of the pulsed light beam exiting the beam homogenizer, wherein the optical frequency separation apparatus is configured to interact with the pulsed light beam and to output a plurality of spatial components that correspond to the spectral components of the pulsed light beam; and at least one sensor that receives and senses the output spatial components.

Homogenization of light beam for spectral feature metrology

Techniques for controlling an optical system include accessing a measured value of a property of a particular pulse of a pulsed light beam emitted from the optical system, the property being related to an amount of coherence of the light beam; comparing the measured value of the property of the light beam to a target value of the property; determining whether to generate a control signal based on the comparison; and if a control signal is generated based on the comparison, adjusting the amount of coherence in the light beam by modifying an aspect of the optical system based on the control signal to reduce an amount of coherence of a pulse that is subsequent to the particular pulse.

Adjusting an amount of coherence of a light beam

Wafer positioning errors in stepper-scanners contribute to imaging defects. Changing the wavelength of the light source's generated light can compensate for wafer positional errors in the Z-direction. The wafer's real-time z-position is determined and a change in wavelength target to offset this error is communicated to the light source. The light source uses this change in wavelength target in a feed-forward operation and, in an embodiment, in combination with existing feedback operations, on a pulse-by-pulse basis for subsequent pulses in a current burst of pulses in addition to receiving the newly-specified laser wavelength target for a subsequent burst of laser pulses.

Wavelength control system for pulse-by-pulse wavelength target tracking in DUV light source

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Thomas Patrick Duffey