The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 23, 1996
Filed:
Jun. 16, 1994
Tsen-Hwang Lin, Dallas, TX (US);
Shane R Palmer, Dallas, TX (US);
Steven C Gustafson, Kettering, OH (US);
Jay M Brown, Denison, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A phase shift illuminator (700) is comprised of a light source (704) and a phase modulator (716), typically a flexure beam micromirror array, which transversely modulates the incident light beam. When a flexure beam micromirror array is used as the phase modulator (716) a polarizing beam splitter (712) and a quarter-wave plate (714) are used to separate the incident and reflected light beams. The phase modulated light beam (720) from the optical illuminator may be used in optical lithography by passing the light beam through a lithography mask (724), typically after the light beam is phase modulated, and focusing the light beam onto a target wafer (726).