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. 22, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 31, 2001
Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An exposure method is provided, in which a speckle pattern (interference fringe) formed on a pattern of a transfer objective can be reduced without complicating an illumination optical system so much, without increasing the size of the illumination optical system so much, and without prolonging the exposure time, even when an exposure light beam having high coherence is used. A laser beam (LB) as an exposure light beam from an exposure light source ( ) is introduced into a ring-shaped delay optical system ( ), for example, via a modified illumination mechanism ( ) and a light-collecting lens ( ). A plurality of light fluxes, which have passed through the interior of the delay optical system ( ) a variety of numbers of times depending on angular apertures in accordance with internal reflection, are superimposed and extracted as a laser beam (LB ). The laser beam (LB ) illuminates a reticle (R), for example, via a fly's eye lens ( ) and a condenser lens ( ).