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. 31, 2005
Filed:
Sep. 08, 2000
Tomoko Ohtsuki, Allentown, PA (US);
Tomoko Ohtsuki, Allentown, PA (US);
Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An exposure apparatus has a laser device that is small, easy to maintain, and capable of producing an output that is unlikely to be affected by optical surges occurring in the beginning of operation. A single-wavelength laser oscillator () supplies a laser beam (LB) to a fiber optic amplifier () through an optical modulator (). The amplified laser beam is split by splitters (-to-), amplified by optical amplifier units (-to-) and supplied through a fiber bundle () to a wavelength converter (), which in turn converts the split beams into ultraviolet laser radiation (LB) for use as exposure light. The optical modulator () outputs light pulses during the generation of ultraviolet light. The optical modulator () also produces laser radiation during the absence of ultraviolet light, but the laser radiation has substantially the same average output and a considerably low peak compared with that during the generation of ultraviolet light.