摘要:
An extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) light source comprising an optic, a target material, and a laser beam passing through said optic along a beam path to irradiate said target material. The EUV light source further includes a system generating a gas flow directed toward said target material along said beam path, said system having a tapering member surrounding a volume and a plurality of gas lines, each gas line outputting a gas stream into said volume.
摘要:
A method and apparatus that may comprise an EUV light producing mechanism utilizing an EUV plasma source material comprising a material that will form an etching compound, which plasma source material produces EUV light in a band around a selected center wavelength comprising: an EUV plasma generation chamber; an EUV light collector contained within the chamber having a reflective surface containing at least one layer comprising a material that does not form an etching compound and/or forms a compound layer that does not significantly reduce the reflectivity of the reflective surface in the band; an etchant source gas contained within the chamber comprising an etchant source material with which the plasma source material forms an etching compound, which etching compound has a vapor pressure that will allow etching of the etching compound from the reflective surface. The etchant source material may comprises a halogen or halogen compound. The etchant source material may be selected based upon the etching being stimulated in the presence of photons of EUV light and/or DUV light and/or any excited energetic photons with sufficient energy to stimulate the etching of the plasma source material. The apparatus may further comprise an etching stimulation plasma generator providing an etching stimulation plasma in the working vicinity of the reflective surface; and the etchant source material may be selected based upon the etching being stimulated by an etching stimulation plasma. There may also be an ion accelerator accelerating ions toward the reflective surface. The ions may comprise etchant source material. The apparatus and method may comprise a part of an EUV production subsystem with an optical element to be etched of plasma source material.
摘要:
A device is disclosed which may comprise a system generating a plasma at a plasma site, the plasma producing EUV radiation and ions exiting the plasma. The device may also include an optic, e.g., a multi-layer mirror, distanced from the site by a distance, d, and a flowing gas disposed between the plasma and optic, the gas establishing a gas pressure sufficient to operate over the distance, d, to reduce ion energy below a pre-selected value before the ions reach the optic. In one embodiment, the gas may comprise hydrogen and in a particular embodiment, the gas may comprise greater than 50 percent hydrogen by volume.
摘要:
A method and apparatus 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 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 output light beam of pulses, which may comprise a ring power amplification stage.
摘要:
A device is described herein which may comprise an oscillator having an oscillator cavity length, L0, and defining an oscillator path; and a multi-pass optical amplifier coupled with the oscillator to establish a combined optical cavity including the oscillator path, the combined cavity having a length, Lcombined, where Lcombined=(N+x)*L0, where “N” is an integer and “x” is a number between 0.4 and 0.6.
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:
Systems and methods are disclosed for reducing the influence of plasma generated debris on internal components of an EUV light source. In one aspect, an EUV metrology monitor is provided which may have a heater to heat an internal multi-layer filtering mirror to a temperature sufficient to remove deposited debris from the mirror. In another aspect, a device is disclosed for removing plasma generated debris from an EUV light source collector mirror having a different debris deposition rate at different zones on the collector mirror. In a particular aspect, an EUV collector mirror system may comprise a source of hydrogen to combine with Li debris to create LiH on a collector surface; and a sputtering system to sputter LiH from the collector surface. In another aspect, an apparatus for etching debris from a surface of a EUV light source collector mirror with a controlled plasma etch rate is disclosed.
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.
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:
An LPP EUV light source is disclosed having an optic positioned in the plasma chamber for reflecting EUV light generated therein and a laser input window. For this aspect, the EUV light source may be configured to expose the optic to a gaseous etchant pressure for optic cleaning while the window is exposed to a lower gaseous etchant pressure to avoid window coating deterioration. In another aspect, an EUV light source may comprise a target material positionable along a beam path to participate in a first interaction with light on the beam path; an optical amplifier; and at least one optic directing photons scattered from the first interaction into the optical amplifier to produce a laser beam on the beam path for a subsequent interaction with the target material to produce an EUV light emitting plasma.