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AssigneeUltratech, Inc.
InventorsShiyu Zhang, Igor Landau, Arnold Lungershausen, David A. Markle, Casey Donaher
Estimating the term…
Methods and apparatus for truncating an image formed with coherent radiation. The optical relay system is adapted to form a line image at the image plane. The image is truncated by a variable aperture at or near the aperture plane conjugate to the image plane, to block progressively increasing portions of an incident coherent radiation beam used to form the line image. An apodizing pupil filter having a maximum transmission or reflection in the center and a transmission or reflection profile that varies with direction corresponding to long direction of the line image is provided in the pupil plane. The apodization is designed to prevent hot-spots from forming in the truncated image and ensures a relatively smooth, flat intensity profile. Thus, one end or another of a coherent line image scanned over a substrate can be truncated during scanning without substantially changing the image intensity extending into the product area.
An optical apparatus for truncating a line image formed with coherent radiation, comprising an optical relay system having an aperture plane, a pupil plane, and an image plane, in that order, with the aperture plane conjugate to the image plane, the optical relay system disposed to receive an incident beam of coherent radiation at the aperture plane and to form from said beam of coherent radiation an untruncated line image having first and second ends, a length and a maximum intensity in said image plane, the optical relay system additionally having an apodizing pupil filter arranged at the pupil plane and a variable aperture arranged in the aperture plane and adapted to progressively truncate the incident radiation beam to progressively truncate the line image from the first and/or second end wherein the apodizing pupil filter acts to reduce diffraction of the beam from the variable aperture during truncation of the image so that the truncated image has a maximum intensity substantially equal to or less than the untruncated image maximum intensity.
An optical apparatus for truncating an image scanned over a substrate having a surface that includes a product zone surrounded by an edge exclusion zone, comprising an optical relay system adapted to receive a beam of coherent radiation and form therefrom a uniform image that is scanned over the substrate surface, the optical relay system having a variable aperture adapted to selectively block some or all of the beam of coherent radiation to progressively truncate the image as the scanned image transitions from the product zone to the exclusion zone or vice versa and an apodizing pupil filter arranged at a pupil plane between the variable aperture and the substrate adapted to reduce diffraction of the beam from the variable aperture during image truncation so that the truncated image on the surface of the substrate remains uniform.
The apparatus of 18, wherein the apodizing filter has an apodization that has a zero baseline.
A method of progressively truncating an image formed at an image plane of an optical relay system having a pupil plane, comprising:
A method of performing laser thermal annealing of a substrate having an outer edge and an upper surface having a product zone and an edge exclusion zone surrounding the product zone, comprising:
A method of performing laser thermal annealing of a substrate having an outer edge and an upper surface having a product zone and an edge exclusion zone surrounding the product zone, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.