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:
May. 20, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 06, 2001
John E. Rauch, Poway, CA (US);
William N. Partlo, Poway, CA (US);
Igor V. Fomenkov, San Diego, CA (US);
Richard M. Ness, San Diego, CA (US);
Daniel L. Birx, late of Potomac, MD (US);
Richard L. Sandstrom, Encinitas, CA (US);
Stephan T. Melnychuk, Carlsbad, CA (US);
Cymer, Inc., San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A high energy photon source. A pair of plasma pinch electrodes are located in a vacuum chamber. The chamber contains a working gas which includes a noble buffer gas and an active gas chosen to provide a desired spectral line. A pulse power source provides electrical pulses at repetition rates of 1000 Hz or greater and at voltages high enough to create electrical discharges between the electrodes to produce very high temperature, high density plasma pinches in the working gas providing radiation at the spectral line of the source or active gas. A fourth generation unit is described which produces 20 mJ, 13.5 nm pulses into 2 &pgr; steradians at repetition rates of 2000 Hz with xenon as the active gas. This unit includes a pulse power system having a resonant charger charging a charging capacitor bank, and a magnetic compression circuit comprising a pulse transformer for generating the high voltage electrical pulses at repetition rates of 2000 Hz or greater.