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AssigneeXTREME technologies GmbH
InventorJuergen Kleinschmidt
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The invention is directed to a method for energy regulation of pulsed-operation gas discharge-coupled radiation sources, particularly of excimer lasers, F2 lasers and EUV radiation sources. The object of the invention is to find a novel possibility for energy regulation of pulsed-operation gas discharge-coupled radiation sources which permits a control of the charging voltage while taking into account the aging of gas discharge components (particularly of the work gas) without recalibration of the system. This object is met in that the pulse energy is measured for each individual pulse, at least the charging voltage is detected as influencing variable on the pulse energy for each individual pulse, the error of the current pulse energy is determined for that pulse in relation to a predetermined target value of the pulse energy, the set energy Es, the mean square deviation from the set energy is calculated by time-average over a large quantity of pulses, and the pulse energy is controlled for every pulse by a proportional regulation of the charging voltage, wherein the proportional regulation is carried out with an adapted regulating factor which is determined by minimizing the mean square deviation of the current pulse energy.
A method for energy regulation of pulsed-operation gas discharge-coupled radiation sources with excitation of a work gas and application of a high-voltage charging, particularly of excimer lasers, F2 lasers and EUV radiation sources which generate a quasi-stationary pulse train, a so-called burst, in continuous operation comprising the following steps:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.