Optical hollow waveguide assembly, illumination optics unit and inspection apparatus

Abstract

An optical hollow waveguide assembly comprises an optical hollow waveguide for guiding illumination light, having a main body having a continuous waveguide cavity having a waveguide input and a waveguide output, wherein a waveguide cavity inner wall of the waveguide cavity is designed to be highly reflective for the illumination light at least under grazing incidence. The hollow waveguide assembly furthermore comprises a waveguide purging device for purging the waveguide cavity with a purge gas, comprising a purge gas connector and at least one nozzle disposed fluidically downstream of the purge gas connector in order to supply the purge gas, at least indirectly, to the waveguide output, in order to generate a purge gas flow from the waveguide output to the waveguide input.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.