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:
Oct. 14, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 30, 2001
Yutaka Hayashi, Yokohama, JP;
Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The exposure apparatus comprises a gas supply system that supplies a low absorptive gas with a predetermined purity to the illumination system housing and the barrel of the projection optical system and collects the gas exhausted from these closed spaces and supplies the gas to the mask chamber which houses the mask stage and the substrate chamber which houses the substrate stage. The illumination system housing, the barrel of the projection optical system, the mask chamber, and the substrate chamber are respectively located on the optical path of the exposure light. Accordingly, the low absorptive gas that has circulated the illumination system housing and the barrel of the projection optical system is used as the replacement gas of the mask chamber and the substrate chamber, while sufficiently satisfying the purity of the low absorptive gas and maintaining the transmittance of the exposure light required in each chamber. Thus, the usage efficiency of the low absorptive gas can be improved, and wasteful consumption of the low absorptive gas can be suppressed.
Data source: USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) public patent records. Weekly synchronization. How IDiyas builds this profile