Lithography optics adjustment and monitoring

A photolithographic apparatus comprising:

• a light source having at least one optical element;
• a module arranged to obtain a near field image and a far field image of a light beam from the light source;
• a module arranged to extract near field information indicative of a state of alignment of the optical element from the near field image;
• a module arranged to extract far field information indicative of a state of alignment of the optical element from the far field image;
• a control system for generating a control signal based at least in part on the at least one of the near field information and the far field information;
• and
• an actuator mechanically coupled to the at least one optical element and responsively connected to the control system and adapted to incrementally adjust an alignment of the at least one optical element in response to the control signal.

An optical element module for use in a photolithographic apparatus, the optical element module comprising:

• a housing;
• an optical element positioned within the housing;
• and
• an actuator that extends through a wall of the housing, is mechanically coupled to the optical element, and is adapted to incrementally adjust the at least one optical element in response to a signal, a component of the actuator for imparting motion to the actuator in response to the signal being located outside of the housing;
• a module arranged to obtain a near field image of a light beam from a light source;
• a module arranged to extract information from the near field image;
• and
• a control system for generating the signal at least partially in response to the information extracted from the near field image.

A photolithographic apparatus comprising:

• a light source having at least one optical element;
• a module arranged to obtain a near field image of a light beam from the light source;
• a module arranged to extract image information from the near field image;
• a control system arranged to receive the image information and for generating a signal at least partially in response to the image information;
• and
• an actuator mechanically coupled to the at least one optical element, arranged to receive the signal, and adapted to incrementally adjust the at least one optical element in response to the signal.

A method for adjusting an optical element in a light source in a photolithography system comprising the steps of:

• generating a light beam using the light source;
• obtaining a near field image representative of the light beam;
• extracting near field information from the image;
• generating a control signal in response to the near field information from the near field image;
• and
• applying the control signal to an actuator mechanically coupled to an optical element in the light source to incrementally adjust the optical element in response to the control signal.

A method for automatically detecting and adjusting an alignment of a light source for semiconductor photolithography, the method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining an image of a light beam produced by the light source;
• extracting a near field portion from the image;
• obtaining image data from the near field portion;
• performing a transform operation on the image data;
• storing the results of the transform operation in a database;
• and
• incrementally adjusting at least one optical element in the light source based at least in part on the results of the transform operation.

A method for automatically detecting a state of a light source for semiconductor photolithography, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) obtaining an image of a light beam produced by the light source;
• (b) extracting a near field portion from the image;
• (c) obtaining image data from the near field portion;
• (e) performing a transform operation on the image data;
• (f) storing the results of the transform operation in a database, wherein steps (a) through (f) are performed repeatedly over a period of time to detect the state repeatedly and store a plurality of results of the transform operation in the database;
• comparing the plurality of stored results of the transform operation to determine an evolution of the state over time;
• and
• performing maintenance on the light source after a period of time having a duration based at least in part on the evolution of the state over time.

A photolithographic apparatus comprising:

• a light source having at least one optical element located within a housing;
• an actuator that extends through a wall of the housing, is mechanically coupled to the at least one optical element, and is adapted to incrementally adjust the at least one optical element in response to a signal, a component of the actuator for imparting motion to the actuator in response to the signal being located outside of the housing;
• a combined autoshutter metrology module arranged to obtain an image of a light beam from the light source;
• a module arranged to extract information from the image;
• and
• a control system for generating the signal at least partially in response to the information extracted from the image.

A photolithographic apparatus comprising:

• a light source having at least one optical element located within a housing;
• an actuator that extends through a wall of the housing, is mechanically coupled to the at least one optical element, and is adapted to incrementally adjust the at least one optical element in response to a signal, a component of the actuator for imparting motion to the actuator in response to the signal being located outside of the housing;
• a module arranged to obtain an image of a light beam from the light source;
• a module arranged to extract feature information from the image using at least one of a Circle Hough Transform, a Standard Hough Transform, and a Radon Transform;
• and
• a control system for generating the signal at least partially in response to the information extracted from the image.