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:
Aug. 15, 2006
Filed:
Jul. 06, 2001
Applicant:
Bruce W. Smith, Penfield, NY (US);
Inventor:
Bruce W. Smith, Penfield, NY (US);
Assignee:
ASML Netherlands B.V., Veldhoven, NL;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G03B 27/52 (2006.01); G03B 27/54 (2006.01); G03F 1/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
A microlithograpic tool, such as a projection stepper, for manufacturing integrated circuits, shapes light that illuminates a photomask with a chevron illumination system. The system uses either a chevron aperture mask of diffractive optical elements to shape a light source into four chevrons (). The chevrons are located in the corners of the circular pupil of the condenser lens. The chevrons may be a small a square poles at the corners or as large as an annular square ring. The chevrons provide superior performance for illuminating conventional X and Y oriented features of a photomask.