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:
Dec. 17, 2013
Filed:
Dec. 05, 2011
Max Christian Schuermann, Luebbecke, DE;
Lutz Dippmann, Bovenden, DE;
Juergen Kleinschmidt, Jena, DE;
Guido Schriever, Goettingen, DE;
Max Christian Schuermann, Luebbecke, DE;
Lutz Dippmann, Bovenden, DE;
Juergen Kleinschmidt, Jena, DE;
Guido Schriever, Goettingen, DE;
XTREME technologies GmbH, Aachen, DE;
Abstract
The invention is related to a gas discharge-based radiation source which emits short-wavelength radiation, wherein an emitter is ionized and compressed by pulse-shaped currents between two electrodes arranged in a vacuum chamber and is excited to form an emitting plasma. According to the invention, the plasma is preserved by means of a high-frequency sequence of pulse-shaped currents the pulse repetition period of which is adjusted so as to be shorter than a lifetime of the plasma so that the plasma is kept periodically alternating between a high-energy state of an emitting compressed plasma and a low-energy state of a relaxing plasma. For exciting the relaxing plasma to the compressed plasma, excitation energy is coupled into the relaxing plasma by making use of pulse-shaped currents with repetition frequencies between 50 kHz and 4 MHz and pulse widths equal to the pulse repetition period.