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. 13, 2015
Filed:
Sep. 10, 2014
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Sandia Corporation, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Leonard E. Klebanoff, Dublin, CA (US);
Gildardo R. Delgado, Livermore, CA (US);
Jeromy T. Hollenshead, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Karl R. Umstadter, Livermore, CA (US);
Elena Starodub, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Guorong V. Zhuang, San Jose, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
An optical instrument, including a chamber, an object exposed to an interior of the chamber, a source of low-pressure gas, the gas comprising at least one of low-pressure molecular hydrogen gas, low-pressure molecular oxygen and a low-pressure noble gas, the source of low pressure gas being fluidly coupled to the chamber, a low voltage source electrically coupled between the object and a remaining portion of the instrument that is exposed to the interior of the chamber so as to maintain the object at a low voltage relative to the remaining portion, and an EUV/VUV light source adapted to direct EUV/VUV light through the low pressure gas in the chamber onto the object. In such a system, when the EUV/VUV light source is activated ions of the low-pressure gas are formed and directed to the object. The ions may be ions of Hydrogen, Oxygen or a noble gas.