Illumination system for a microlithography projection exposure apparatus
AssigneeCarl Zeiss SMT GmbH
InventorsToralf Gruner, Michael Totzeck
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An illumination system for a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus includes an EUV light source which generates an emission beam of linearly polarized EUV illumination light. An illumination optics guides the emission beam along an optical axis which causes an illumination field in a reticle plane to be illuminated by the emission beam. The illumination system also includes an illumination subunit of the illumination system. The illumination subunit includes at least the EUV light source and a polarization setting device for setting a defined polarization of the EUV emission beam of the illumination subunit.
Claims20
An illumination system, comprising:
- An illumination subunit, comprising:
- an EUV light source configured to generate an emission beam of linearly polarized EUV illumination light;
- and
- a polarization setting device configured to set a defined polarization of the EUV emission beam of the illumination subunit by at least one movement selected from the group consisting of a rotational movement of the illumination subunit and a translational movement of the illumination subunit;
- and
- an illumination optics configured to guide the emission beam along an optical axis to illuminate an illumination field in a plane with the emission beam,
- wherein the illumination system is configured to be used in a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus.
An illumination system according to 2, further comprising a scattering component configured to increase divergence of the emission beam, wherein the scattering component is downstream of the EUV light source, the EUV light source being an illumination subunit which, along with the scattering component, is arranged to be rotated about a portion of the optical axis that is downstream of the scattering component and extends up to the nearest deflecting EUV bundle-guiding component.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.