Cymer, Inc.

Yingbo Zhao

Thomas Patrick Duffey

Kevin M O'Brien

Joshua Jon Thornes

Walter Dale Gillespie

Eric Anders Mason

Md Hossain Toufiq Imam

Kevin O'brien

Provided is a gas control system and method for online control of a gas compartment of a radiation source. The method includes measuring a parameter of a radiation source such as an excimer laser, the parameter describing an electrical stimulation applied to the laser and/or a characteristic of radiation generated by the laser and/or an amount of a consumable in the gas compartment. A function of the parameter is compared a to a threshold and if the parameter breaches the threshold, an amount of gas is calculated based on the parameter. An instruction is provided to provide or remove the amount of gas to or from, the gas compartment. Gases may be injected or bled into the compartment during use of the radiation source thereby reducing or negating the need to take the radiation source offline to purge and refill the gas compartment.

Gas control method and related uses

A laser system's laser light energy control and resulting dose control is improved by creating and using a set of gain estimators, one for each of a set or range of laser light pulse repetition rates. When a new repetition rate is used, its corresponding gain estimator is retrieved, used to compute the voltage to fire the laser source, and updated. The resulting generated laser light thereby avoids the convergence delay inherent in prior laser systems and, further, can repeatedly do so with subsequent specified repetition rates.

Laser light energy and dose control using repetition rate based gain estimators

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 radiation system for controlling bursts of pulses of radiation comprises: an optical element; a controller; an actuator; and a sensor. The optical element is configured to interact with the pulses of radiation to control a characteristic of the pulses of radiation, the characteristic of the pulses of radiation being dependent on a configuration of the optical element. The controller is operable to generate a control signal. The actuator is configured to receive the control signal from the controller and to control a configuration of the optical element in dependence on the control signal. The sensor is operable to determine the characteristic of pulses having interacted with the optical element. The control signal for a given pulse in a given burst is dependent on the determined characteristic of a corresponding pulse from a previous burst.

Radiation system for controlling bursts of pulses of radiation

A system for deep ultraviolet (DUV) optical lithography includes an optical source apparatus including N optical oscillators, N being an integer number greater than or equal to two, and each of the N optical oscillators is configured to produce a pulse of light in response to an excitation signal; and a control system coupled to the optical source apparatus. The control system is configured to determine a corrected excitation signal for a first one of the N optical oscillators based on an input signal, the input signal including an energy property of a pulse of light produced by another one of the N optical oscillators.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Yingbo Zhao