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:
Jun. 24, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 14, 2001
Shigeru Hagiwara, Ageo, JP;
Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In the present invention, a light source portion including a laser resonator of a laser unit is housed in an environment control chamber where the main body of the exposure apparatus including a projection optical system is also housed, and temperature control of the main body of the exposure apparatus and the light source portion is performed so as to maintain the temperature of the entire optical system within the chamber uniform. Thus, the footprint of the apparatus can be reduced compared with when the whole laser unit is arranged separately from the main body of the exposure apparatus. Shift of the center wavelength and change in the spectral half-width and the degree of energy concentration can be avoided, and variation of image forming characteristics including the chromatic aberration of the projection optical system due to the wavelength shift can be suppressed to a minimum. Accordingly, with the exposure apparatus in the present invention, the productivity when producing a microdevice can be improved, and the production cost reduced.