A microlithography projection objective includes an optical element, a manipulator configured to manipulate the optical element, and a control unit configured to control the manipulator. The control unit includes a first device configured to control movement of the manipulator, a memory comprising an upper bound for a range of movement of the manipulator, and a second device configured to generate a merit function based on a square of a root mean square (RMS) of at least one error and configured to minimize the merit function subordinate to the upper bound for the range of movement of the manipulator.

Claims

64 · 3 independent · depth 5

64 granted claims

›1.independentA system, comprising:nan objective, comprising:nan optical element; anda manipulator configured to manipulate the optical element; anda control unit c…+39

›2.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the objective comprises a plurality of optical elements.d2+3

›6.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one error is selected from the group consisting of scale error, telecentricity error, overlay error, depth…d2

›7.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one error comprises at least one image aberration.d2

›8.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the merit function comprises a parameter describing a sensitivity matrix.d2+1

›10.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the merit function comprises a regularization parameter.d2

›11.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the objective comprises first, second and third optical elements, the first optical element is near a pupil plane of th…d2

›12.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the bound is the upper bound.d2

›13.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the bound for the range of movement of the manipulator comprises the bounds for maximum movements of manipulators.d2

›15.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 5000 ms.d2

›16.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 1000 ms.d2

›17.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 200 ms.d2

›18.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 20 ms.d2

›19.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 5 ms.d2

›20.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 1 ms.d2

›21.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the merit function comprises a linear function of a degree of freedom of the manipulation of the optical element by the…d2

›22.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the merit function comprises a quadratic function of a degree of freedom of the manipulation of the optical element by …d2

›23.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the second device is configured to minimize the merit function using a linear programming.d2

›24.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the second device is configured to minimize the merit function using a quadratic programming.d2

›25.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein calculating the value of the merit function comprises generating the merit function.d2+2

›28.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein calculating the value of the merit function comprises adjusting weighting coefficients of the merit function.d2+2

›31.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator comprises at least one element selected from the group consi…d2

›32.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator comprises exchanging the optical element.d2

›33.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator comprises at least one element selected from the group consi…d2

›34.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the optical element comprises a reflective optical element.d2

›35.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the optical element comprises a reflective optical element in the vicinity of a pupil plane.d2

›36.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein:nthe objective has a folded design comprising first, second and third objective parts;the optical element comprises a r…d2

›37.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein:nthe objective has a folded design comprising first, second and third objective parts;the optical element comprises a r…d2

›38.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the optical element comprises a diffractive optical element.d2

›39.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the optical element comprises a refractive optical element.d2

›40.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the second device is configured to calculate the merit function based on a root mean square (RMS) of the at least one e…d2

›41.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the second device is configured to calculate the merit function based on a square of a root mean square (RMS) of the at…d2

›14.independentThe system of claim, 1 wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 15000 ms.

›42.independentAn apparatus, comprising:nan illumination system; anda projection objective, comprising:nan optical element; anda manipulator configured to manipulate…+22

›43.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, the projection objective comprises a plurality of optical elements.d2

›44.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the merit function comprises a linear function of a degree of freedom of the manipulation of the optical element by…d2

›45.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the merit function comprises a quadratic function of a degree of freedom of the manipulation of the optical element…d2

›46.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the second device is configured to minimize the merit function using a linear programming.d2

›47.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the second device is configured to minimize the merit function using a quadratic programming.d2

›48.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein calculating the value of the merit function comprises generating the merit function.d2+2

›51.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein calculating the value of the merit function comprises adjusting weighting coefficients of the merit function.d2+2

›54.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator comprises at least one element selected from the group c…d2

›55.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator comprises exchanging the optical element.d2

›56.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator comprises at least one element selected from the group c…d2

›57.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the optical element comprises a reflective optical element.d2

›58.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the optical element comprises a reflective optical element in the vicinity of a pupil plane.d2

›59.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein:nthe objective has a folded design comprising first, second and third objective parts;the optical element comprises…d2

›60.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein:nthe objective has a folded design comprising first, second and third objective parts;the optical element comprises…d2

›61.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the optical element comprises a diffractive optical element.d2

›62.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the optical element comprises a refractive optical element.d2

›63.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the second device is configured to calculate the merit function based on a root mean square (RMS) of the at least o…d2

›64.↳ 42The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the second device is configured to calculate the merit function based on a square of a root mean square (RMS) of th…d2

Classifications

11 codes

IPC · International Patent Classification

Section G — Physics

G03B27/52
G03F7/20
G03B27/42
G03B27/68
G03B27/72
G03B27/54

USPC · US Patent Classification

355/55355/52355/71355/67355/53

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2.8 y

1,020 days filing → grant

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non-final + final

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Christina Riddle

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2 priority documents

Priority

25 Sep 2008

earliest claimed

›Priority documents — 2

Type	Document	Date
provisional	US 61099948	25 Sep 2008
related publication	US 20120188524 A1	26 Jul 2012

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