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US 10,151,982 B2Granted
Illumination system of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus with a birefringent element
AssigneeCarl Zeiss SMT GmbH
InventorsDamian Fiolka, Daniel Walldorf, Ingo Saenger
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Abstract
The disclosure concerns an illumination system of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus. The illumination system includes a mirror arrangement which has a plurality of mirror units and at least one element arranged in front of the mirror arrangement in the light propagation direction to produce at least two different states of polarization incident on different mirror units. The mirror units are displaceable independently of each other for altering an angle distribution of the light reflected by the mirror arrangement.
Claims23
An illumination system, comprising:
- a mirror arrangement comprising a plurality of mirror units displaceable independently of each other to alter an angle distribution of light reflected by the mirror arrangement;
- and
- an arrangement comprising first and second elements,
- wherein:
- the first element comprises a birefringent material;
- the second element comprises a birefringent material;
- a relative position of the first and second elements is variable;
- the illumination system is configured so that adjusting respective positions of the first and second elements adjusts:
- a) a number and a position of mirror units that overlap with at least one of the first and second elements and b) a polarization distribution in a pupil plane of the illumination system during use of the illumination system;
- the first and second elements are movable in two directions that are perpendicular to each other and perpendicular to a light propagation direction;
- and
- the illumination system is a microlithographic illumination system.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.