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:
Sep. 07, 2004
Filed:
Mar. 08, 2002
Bruce W. Smith, Webster, NY (US);
ASML Netherlands B.V., Veldhoven, NL;
Abstract
A masking aperture for a photomask illumination system provides controlled on-axis and off-axis illumination. The masking aperture has a dithered pattern of pixels. The intensity of the pattern controls the illumination of the photomask. The masking aperture pattern defines one or more zones of illumination. Zones comprise elements that are patterned in accordance with a selected wavelength of incident light to diffract the incident light into an illumination pattern for illuminating a photomask. Each of the elements is constructed with a matrix of pixels. In the preferred embodiment the array of pixels is 8×8. The number of elements is generally greater than 3×3.