摘要:
An apparatus and method are disclosed which may comprise a pulsed gas discharge laser lithography light source which may comprise a seed laser portion providing a seed laser output light beam of seed pulses; an amplifier portion receiving the seed laser output light beam and amplifying the optical intensity of each seed pulse to provide a high power laser system output light beam of output pulses; the amplifier portion may comprise a ring power amplifier comprising amplifier portion injection optics comprising at least one beam expanding prism, a beam reverser and an input/output coupler; the beam expansion optics and the output coupler may be mounted on an optics assembly with the beam expansion optics rigidly mounted with respect to the optics assembly and the input/output coupler mounted for relative movement with respect to the optics assembly for optical alignment purposes.
摘要:
A method/apparatus may comprise operating a line narrowed pulsed excimer or molecular fluorine gas discharge laser system by using a seed laser oscillator to produce an output which may comprise a first gas discharge excimer or molecular fluorine laser chamber; a line narrowing module; a laser amplification stage which may comprise a ring power amplification stage; the method of operation may the steps of: selecting a differential timing between an electrical discharge between a pair of electrodes in the first laser chamber and in the second laser chamber which at the same time keeps ASE below a selected limit and the pulse energy of the laser system output light beam of pulses essentially constant.
摘要:
A high resolution etalon-grating spectrometer. A preferred embodiment presents an extremely narrow slit function in the ultraviolet range and is very useful for measuring bandwidth of narrow band excimer lasers used for integrated circuit lithography. Light from the laser is focused into a diffuser and the diffused light exiting the diffuser illuminates an etalon. A portion of its light exiting the etalon is collected and directed into a slit positioned at a fringe pattern of the etalon. Light passing through the slit is collimated and the collimated light illuminates a grating positioned in an approximately Littrow configuration which disburses the light according to wavelength. A portion of the dispursed light representing the wavelength corresponding to the selected etalon fringe is passed through a second slit and monitored by a light detector. When the etalon and the grating are tuned to the same precise wavelength a slit function is defined which is extremely narrow such as about 0.034 pm (FWHM) and about 0.091 pm (95 percent integral). The etalon and the grating are placed in a leak-fight enclosure filled with a gas, such as nitrogen or helium. The wavelength scanning of the spectrometer is done by changing the gas pressure in the enclosure during the scan.
摘要:
An apparatus/method which may comprise a line narrowed pulsed excimer or molecular fluorine gas discharge laser system which may comprise a seed laser oscillator producing an output comprising a seed laser output light beam of pulses which may comprise a first gas discharge excimer or molecular fluorine laser chamber; a line narrowing module within a first oscillator cavity; a laser amplification stage containing an amplifying gain medium in a second gas discharge excimer or molecular fluorine laser chamber receiving the output of the seed laser oscillator and amplifying the output of the seed laser oscillator to form a laser system output comprising a laser system output light beam of pulses, which may comprise a ring power amplification stage; a seed injection mechanism.
摘要:
An oscillator-amplifier gas discharge laser system and method is disclosed which may comprise a first laser unit which may comprise a first discharge region which may contain an excimer or molecular fluorine lasing gas medium; a first pair of electrodes defining the first discharge region containing the lasing gas medium, a line narrowing unit for narrowing a spectral bandwidth of output laser light pulse beam pulses produced in said first discharge region; a second laser unit which may comprise a second discharge chamber which may contain an excimer or molecular fluorine lasing gas medium; a second pair of electrodes defining the second discharge region containing the lasing gas medium; a pulse power system providing electrical pulses to the first pair of electrodes and to the second pair of electrodes producing gas discharges in the lasing gas medium between the respective first and second pair of electrodes, and laser parameter control mechanism modifying a selected parameter of a selected laser output light pulse beam pulse produced by said gas discharge laser system by controlling the timing of the occurrence of the gas discharge between the first pair of electrodes and the occurrence of the gas discharge between the second pair of electrodes.
摘要:
An injection seeded modular gas discharge laser system capable of producing high quality pulsed laser beams at pulse rates of about 4,000 Hz or greater and at pulse energies of about 5 mJ or greater. Two separate discharge chambers are provided, one of which is a part of a master oscillator producing a very narrow band seed beam which is amplified in the second discharge chamber. The chambers can be controlled separately permitting separate optimization of wavelength parameters in the master oscillator and optimization of pulse energy parameters in the amplifying chamber. A preferred embodiment in a F2 laser system configured as a MOPA and specifically designed for use as a light source for integrated circuit lithography. In the preferred MOPA embodiment, each chamber comprises a single tangential fan providing sufficient gas flow to permit operation at pulse rates of 4000 Hz or greater by clearing debris from the discharge region in less time than the approximately 0.25 milliseconds between pulses. The master oscillator is equipped with a line selection package for selecting the strongest F2 spectral line.
摘要翻译:一种注射种子模块化气体放电激光系统,其能够以约4,000Hz或更大的脉冲速率和约5mJ或更大的脉冲能量产生高质量的脉冲激光束。 提供两个单独的放电室,其中之一是主振荡器的一部分,其产生在第二放电室中放大的非常窄的带状晶体束。 可以单独控制室,允许主振荡器中的波长参数的单独优化和放大室中的脉冲能量参数的优化。 配置为MOPA并被专门设计用作集成电路光刻的光源的F 2 N 2激光系统中的优选实施例。 在优选的MOPA实施例中,每个腔室包括单个切向风扇,其通过在比脉冲之间的大约0.25毫秒更短的时间内清除来自放电区域的碎屑来提供足够的气流以允许以4000Hz或更高的脉冲速率操作。 主振荡器配备有用于选择最强的F 2/2谱线的线选择包。
摘要:
A high resolution spectral measurement device. A preferred embodiment presents an extremely narrow slit function in the ultraviolet range and is very useful for measuring bandwidth of narrow-band excimer lasers used for integrated circuit lithography. Light from the laser is focused into a diffuser and the diffused light exiting the diffuser illuminates an etalon. A portion of its light exiting the etalon is collected and directed into a slit positioned at a fringe pattern of the etalon. Light passing through the slit is collimated and the collimated light illuminates a grating positioned in an approximately Littrow configuration which disburses the light according to wavelength. A portion of the dispursed light representing the wavelength corresponding to the selected etalon fringe is passed through a second slit and monitored by a light detector. When the etalon and the grating are tuned to the same precise wavelength a slit function is defined which is extremely narrow such as about 0.034 pm (FWHM) and about 0.091 pm (95 percent integral). The bandwidth of a laser beam can be measured very accurately by a directing portion of the laser beam into the insulator and scanning the laser wavelength over a range which includes the monochromator slit wavelength. In a second embodiment the second slit and the light detector is replaced by a photodiod array and the bandwidth of a laser beam is determined by analyzing a set of scan data from the photodiode array. Alternately, the laser wavelength can be fixed near the middle of the spectrum range of the grating spectrometer, and the etalon can be scanned.
摘要:
An injection seeded modular gas discharge laser system capable of producing high quality pulsed laser beams at pulse rates of about 4,000 Hz or greater and at pulse energies of about 5 mJ or greater. Two separate discharge chambers are provided, one of which is a part of a master oscillator producing a very narrow band seed beam which is amplified in the second discharge chamber. The chambers can be controlled separately permitting separate optimization of wavelength parameters in the master oscillator and optimization of pulse energy parameters in the amplifying chamber. A preferred embodiment in an ArF excimer laser system configured as a MOPA and specifically designed for use as a light source for integrated circuit lithography. In the preferred MOPA embodiment, each chamber comprises a single tangential fan providing sufficient gas flow to permit operation at pulse rates of 4000 Hz or greater by clearing debris from the discharge region in less time than the approximately 0.25 milliseconds between pulses. The master oscillator is equipped with a line narrowing package having a very fast tuning mirror capable of controlling centerline wavelength on a pulse-to-pulse basis at repetition rates of 4000 Hz or greater to a precision of less than 0.2 pm.
摘要:
A method/apparatus may comprise a seed laser oscillator producing an output which may comprise: a first gas discharge excimer or molecular fluorine laser chamber; a line narrowing module within a first oscillator cavity; a laser amplification stage receiving the output of the seed laser oscillator which may comprise: a ring power amplification stage; a coherence busting mechanism intermediate the seed laser oscillator and the ring power amplification stage which may comprise a beam splitter separating the seed laser output into a main beam and a beam entering an optical delay path which may have a delay length longer than the coherence length of a pulse in the seed laser output and may have a beam angular offset mechanism offsetting a delayed beam and the main beam.
摘要:
An apparatus and method which may comprise a pulsed gas discharge laser which may comprise a seed laser portion; an amplifier portion receiving the seed laser output and amplifying the optical intensity of each seed pulse; a pulse stretcher which may comprise: a first beam splitter operatively connected with the first delay path and a second pulse stretcher operatively connected with the second delay path; a first optical delay path tower containing the first beam splitter; a second optical delay path tower containing the second beam splitter; one of the first and second optical delay paths may comprise: a plurality of mirrors defining the respective optical delay path including mirrors located in the first tower and in the second tower; the other of the first and second optical delay paths may comprise: a plurality of mirrors defining the respective optical delay path including mirrors only in one of the first tower and the second tower.