Diagnosis of the trigger chain of a pulsed laser
AssigneeLambda Physik AG
InventorRainer Désor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A diagnostic system is disclosed for monitoring the operation of an excimer laser. A typical excimer laser generates a light pulse in response to a trigger signal. The trigger signal propagates from an external source through a number of electrical modules to the gas discharge. In accordance with the subject invention, outputs from each of the various modules are supplied to digital counters. When the laser is operating properly, each counter will record a single count for each trigger signal. When a fault occurs, the number of counts counted by the counter connected to the faulty module will not match the number of trigger signals. The service engineer can use the information in the counters to help identify which module in the trigger chain is experiencing problems.
Claims9
In a laser having a resonator surrounding a gas discharge which is excited by electrical current pulses to generate pulses of laser light, said current pulses being generated in response to a trigger signal which initiates the operation of a plurality of electrical modules that generate the electric current pulses, a system for monitoring the performance of the individual electrical modules comprising;
- a plurality of counters connected to outputs of individual ones of said plurality of electrical modules, said counters generating count signals corresponding to the electrical current pulses in response to the outputs of the associated electrical modules;
- and
- a processor for recording the count signals generated by each of the counters and for determining with which of he plurality of electrical modules that a fault is associated based on differences between the count signals of the respective counters.
A method of operating a laser having a resonator surrounding a gas discharge which is excited by electrical current pulses to generate pulses of laser light, said current pulses being generated in response to a trigger signal which initiates the operation of a plurality of electrical modules that generate the electric current pulses, said method for monitoring the performance of the individual electrical modules and comprising the steps of:
- monitoring outputs of individual ones of said plurality of electrical modules, and generating count signals corresponding to the electrical current pulses in response thereto;
- and
- recording the count signals;
- and
- determining with which of the plurality of electrical modules that a fault is associated based on differences between the number of the counts recorded for different electrical modules.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.