摘要:
An EUV light source collector erosion mitigation method and apparatus for a collector comprising a multilayered mirror collector comprising a collector outer surface composed of a capping material subject to removal due to a removing interaction with materials created in an EUV light-creating plasma, is disclosed which may comprise including within an EUV plasma source material a replacement material. The replacement material may comprise the same material as the capping material of the multilayered mirror. The replacement material may comprise a material that is essentially transparent to light in a selected band of EUV light, e.g., a spectrum of EUV light generated in a plasma of a plasma source material. The replacement material may comprise a material not susceptible to being etched by an etching material used to remove deposited plasma source material from the collector, e.g., a halogen etchant.
摘要:
The present invention provides a reliable modular production quality excimer laser capable of producing 10 mJ laser pulses at 2000 Hz with a full width half, maximum bandwidth of about 0.6 pm or less. Replaceable modules include a laser chamber; a pulse power system comprised of three modules; an optical resonator comprised of a line narrowing module and an output coupler module; a wavemeter module, an electrical control module, a cooling water module and a gas control module. Improvements in the laser chamber permitting the higher pulse rates and improved bandwidth performance include a single upstream preionizer tube and a high efficiency chamber. The chamber is designed for operation at lower fluorine concentration. Important improvements have been provided in the pulse power unit to produce faster rise time and improved pulse energy control. These improvements include an increased capacity high voltage power supply with a voltage bleed-down circuit for precise voltage trimming, an improved commutation module that generates a high voltage pulse from the capacitors charged by the high voltage power supply and amplifies the pulse voltage 23 times with a very fast voltage transformer having a secondary winding consisting of a single four-segment stainless steel rod. A novel design for the compression head saturable inductor greatly reduces the quantity of transformer oil required and virtually eliminates the possibility of oil leakage which in the past has posed a hazard.
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 apparatus and method is described which may comprise a plasma produced extreme ultraviolet (“EUV”) light source multilayer collector which may comprise a plasma formation chamber; a shell within the plasma formation chamber in the form of a collector shape having a focus; the shell having a sufficient size and thermal mass to carry operating heat away from the multilayer reflector and to radiate the heat from the surface of the shell on a side of the shell opposite from the focus. The material of the shell may comprise a material selected from a group which may comprise silicon carbide, silicon, Zerodur or ULE glass, aluminum, beryllium, molybdenum, copper and nickel. The apparatus and method may comprise at least one radiative heater directed at the shell to maintain the steady state temperature of the shell within a selected range of operating temperatures.
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:
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:
An apparatus and method is described for effectively and efficiently providing plasma irradiation laser light pulses in an LPP EUV light source which may comprise a laser initial target irradiation pulse generating mechanism irradiating a plasma initiation target with an initial target irradiation pulse to form an EUV generating plasma having an emission region emitting in-band EUV light; a laser plasma irradiation pulse generating mechanism irradiating the plasma with a plasma irradiation pulse after the initial target irradiation pulse so as to compress emission material in the plasma toward the emission region of the plasma. The plasma irradiation pulse may comprise a laser pulse having a wavelength that is sufficiently longer than a wavelength of the initial target irradiation pulse to have an associated lower critical density resulting in absorption occurring within the plasma in a region of the plasma defined by the wavelength of the plasma irradiation pulse sufficiently separated from an initial target irradiation site to achieve compression of the emission material, and the may compress the emission region. The laser plasma irradiation pulse may produce an aerial mass density in the ablating cloud of the plasma sufficient to confine the favorably emitting plasma for increased conversion efficiency. The deposition region for the plasma irradiation pulse may be is removed enough from the initial target surface so as to insure compression of the favorably emitting plasma. A high conversion efficiency laser produced plasma extreme ultraviolet (“EUV”) light source may comprise a laser initial target irradiation pulse generating mechanism irradiating a plasma initiation target with a target irradiation pulse to form an EUV generating plasma emitting in-band EUV light; a plasma tamper substantially surrounding the plasma to constrain the expansion of the plasma.
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:
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 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.