Excimer laser and method of operating an excimer laser
AssigneeTuiLaser AG
InventorClaus Strowitzki
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Abstract
The present invention relates to an excimer laser comprising a charging circuit including a parallel connection of a storage capacitor (CB) with a series connection of a reoscillation inductance (LB), a charging inductance (LL) and a firing device (Z) for firing the excimer laser, wherein the storage capacitor (CB) has at least a terminal for connecting a power supply (UL), a peaking capacitor (CP) connected in parallel with the charging inductance (LL), a discharge path including two opposed electrodes (E1, E2), connected in parallel with the peaking capacitor (CP), and a driving device for driving the firing device (Z), wherein the firing device (Z) is formed as a MOSFET array. The invention also relates to a corresponding method of operating such an excimer laser.
Claims21
An excimer laser, comprising:
- a charging circuit including a parallel connection of a storage capacitor (CB) with a series connection of a reoscillation inductance (LB), a charging inductance (LL) and a firing device (Z) for firing the excimer laser, wherein the storage capacitor (CB) has at least a terminal for connecting a power supply (UL) and the firing device includes a MOSFET array,
- a peaking capacitor (CP) connected in parallel with the charging inductance (LL),
- a discharge path including two opposed electrodes (E1, E2), connected in parallel with the peaking capacitor (CP), and
- a driving device for driving the firing device (Z).
A method of operating an excimer laser that includes a power supply, a storage capacitor, a peaking capacitor, and a MOSFET firing device, the method comprising:
- charging the storage capacitor using the power supply while the driving device is in a non-conducting state,
- changing the MOSFET firing device to a conducting state to couple the storage capacitor and the peaking capacitor to cause the storage capacitor to transfer charge to the peaking capacitor, and
- changing the MOSFET firing device to the non-conducting state before the storage capacitor fully discharges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.