Photocopying inventions 06/07

20070146667 - Exposure apparatus: An exposure apparatus for exposing a pattern of a reticle onto a substrate includes a projection optical system for projecting the pattern onto a substrate, the exposure apparatus exposing the substrate through a flammable liquid that is filled in a space between the substrate and a final lens of the... Agent: Morgan & Finnegan, L.L.P.

20070146671 - Off-axis illumination apparatus, exposure apparatus and off-axis illumination method: Provided are an off-axis illumination apparatus, an exposure apparatus, and an off-axis illumination method. The off-axis illumination apparatus may include a mask, a light source for emitting light to the mask, and an incident angle varying section for varying an incident angle of the light. The exposure apparatus may include... Agent: Harness, Dickey & Pierce, P.L.C

20070146659 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method: A lithographic apparatus includes a radiation system for providing a beam of radiation. The radiation system includes at least one of a contaminant trap for trapping material emanating from the radiation source and a collector for collecting the beam of radiation. The at least one of the contaminant trap and... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146656 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method incorporationg a pressure shield: A lithographic apparatus is disclosed that has a movable article support configured to hold and move an article, a radiation control system configured to control a beam of radiation to be targeted onto the article, the article support, or both, the article to be moved relatively to the radiation control... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146657 - Lithographic apparatus and method: A lithographic apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes an illumination system configured to condition an extreme ultraviolet radiation beam, a patterning device configured to impart the extreme ultraviolet radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned extreme ultraviolet radiation beam, a substrate table constructed to hold... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146658 - Lithographic apparatus and method: A lithographic apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a patterning device that is capable of imparting a radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam. The apparatus also includes a cleaning unit arranged to clean the patterning device in-situ, and/or a detection unit arranged... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146661 - Lithographic apparatus, and apparatus and method for measuring an object position in a medium: A lithographic apparatus has a position measuring apparatus configured to measure a position of a substrate support or a patterning support in a medium. The position measuring apparatus has a barometer to measure a pressure of the medium, thereby providing a pressure signal. The position measuring apparatus has a distance... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146660 - Lithographic apparatus, system and device manufacturing method: The invention relates to a lithographic apparatus that includes a system configured to condition a radiation beam or project a patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of a substrate. The system includes an optically active device configured to direct the radiation beam or the patterned radiation beam, respectively, and... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146662 - Method for measuring flare amount, mask for measuring flare amount, and method for manufacturing device: An amount is flare is measured by a method including steps of applying a photosensitive material to a substrate; exposing a part of the photosensitive material using a mask including a transmitting section which has no pattern so that the part of the photosensitive material varies in thickness; and measuring... Agent: Westerman, Hattori, Daniels & Adrian, LLP

20070146663 - Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and device producing method: An exposure apparatus (EX) exposes a substrate (P) by irradiating exposure light (EL) on the substrate (P) via a projection optical system (PL) and a liquid (LQ) supplied from a liquid supply mechanism (10). The exposure apparatus (EX) has a pressure adjustment mechanism (90) for adjusting pressure of the liquid... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070146665 - Lithographic apparatus and substrate edge seal: A method of helping to prevent liquid reaching under a substrate is disclosed that includes introducing a gas at a bottom edge of the substrate so that a buffer is created at the edge of the substrate, helping to keep immersion liquid that is present at the top and edge... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146666 - Lithographic apparatus, device manufacturing method and a control system: A capillary passage is formed between a substrate holder and an edge structure. Along the capillary passage are arranged a plurality of electrodes which, when charged, become liquidphilic. The electrodes may be used to split droplets of liquid and pump the liquid along the capillary passage.... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146664 - Lithographic apparatus, device manufacturing method and method of calibrating a lithographic apparatus: An immersion lithographic apparatus has a plurality of substrate holders arranged to hold substrates, each substrate holder having a conduit therein for passing a temperature control fluid. The thermal responses of the different substrate holders are calibrated and flow rates calculated and used so that all the holders return to... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146668 - Lithographic processing optimization based on hypersampled correlations: A method of optimizing lithographic processing to achieve substrate uniformity, is presented herein. In one embodiment. The method includes deriving hyper-sampled correlation information indicative of photoresist behavior for a plurality of wafer substrates processed at pre-specified target processing conditions. The derivation includes micro-exposing subfields of the substrates with a pattern,... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146670 - Lithographic apparatus, patterning device and device manufacturing method: A lithographic apparatus arranged to transfer a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate. The lithographic apparatus is provided with an alignment system for aligning the patterning device with the substrate. The patterning device includes a proximity mark with a number of adjacent proximity structures, each proximity structure including... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146669 - Pattern alignment method and lithographic apparatus: A method for aligning a substrate in a lithographic apparatus, the method including irradiating a first target portion of the substrate with a first patterned beam to form a first pattern on the substrate. Then, a second target portion of the substrate is irradiated with a second pattern beam to... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146674 - Advanced illumination system for use in microlithography: A system for microlithography comprises an illumination source; an illumination optical system including, in order from an objective side, (a) a first diffractive optical element that receives illumination from the illumination source, (b) a zoom lens, (c) a second diffractive optical element, (d) a condenser lens, (e) a relay lens,... Agent: Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.l.l.c.

20070146673 - Exposure apparatus, exposure method, device manufacturing method: An exposure method for exposing a pattern of a reticle which has a patterned area that has the pattern, and a light shielding area provided around the patterned area, said exposure method includes the step of illuminating the reticle via an illumination optical system that includes a field stop, wherein... Agent: Morgan & Finnegan, L.L.P.

20070146672 - Methods and systems to compensate for a stitching disturbance of a printed pattern in a maskless lithography system utilizing overlap of exposure zones with attenuation of the aerial image in the overlap region: A method and system are provided for printing a pattern on a photosensitive surface using a spatial light modulator (SLM). An exemplary method includes defining two or more exposure areas on the photosensitive surface, the exposure areas overlapping along respective edge portions of the exposure areas to form an overlap... Agent: Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.l.l.c.

20070146675 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method: A lithographic apparatus includes a first component; an actuator to move the first component relative to a second component; a measurement system to measure at least one of a position, velocity, acceleration and higher order time derivatives of the position; and a control system to control the actuator according to... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146677 - Illumination optical system and exposure apparatus using the same: An illumination optical system for illuminating an illuminated surface using light from a light source includes a first diffraction optical element upon which the light from the light source is incident, and a second diffraction optical element upon which the light from the light source is incident, wherein the light... Agent: Morgan & Finnegan, L.L.P.

20070146676 - Method of adjusting lighting optical device, lighting optical device, exposure system, and exposure method: An illumination optical apparatus is arranged to illuminate a surface to be illuminated, with light in a desired polarization state, without substantive influence of manufacturing error of an optical member functioning as a wave plate. The illumination optical apparatus illuminates the surface to be illuminated (M, W) on the basis... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070146678 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method: A lithographic apparatus includes an illumination system to condition a radiation beam, a patterning device support to support a patterning device in a projection plane, the patterning device to pattern the radiation beam, a substrate table to hold a substrate, a projection system to project the patterned beam onto the... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146679 - Lithographic apparatus and method: According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a lithographic apparatus that includes a substrate carrier arranged to hold a substrate in position using an electrostatic force. The substrate carrier is provided with an integral power source. The apparatus also includes a substrate table for holding the... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070146680 - Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and exposure mask: Disclosed is an exposure apparatus, an exposure method and an exposure mask, for improved optical lithography. Specifically, in accordance with one preferred form of the invention, the exposure apparatus is arranged to be used with an exposure mask having an elastically deformable holding member and a light blocking film provided... Agent: Fitzpatrick Cella Harper & Scinto

20070146681 - Reticle transport apparatus, exposure apparatus, reticle transport method, and reticle processing method: A reticle transport apparatus transports a reticle to and from a processing atmosphere. A reticle loader loads the reticle into the processing atmosphere, with at least a portion of the reticle being covered by a cover. A cover manipulator, in the processing atmosphere, removes the reticle from the cover and... Agent: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP

20070139630 - Changeable slit to control uniformity of illumination: Methods and apparatus for controlling illumination uniformity by altering the size of a slit are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, an apparatus includes a light source, an exposure surface, and an illumination unit. The light source generates a beam that is projected onto the exposure surface.... Agent: Aka Chan LLP

20070139628 - Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and method for producing device: Exposure apparatus exposes a substrate by irradiating the substrate with exposure light via a projection optical system and a liquid. The exposure apparatus is provided with a liquid immersion mechanism for supplying the liquid and recovering the liquid. The liquid immersion mechanism has an inclined surface, which is opposite to... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070139631 - Environmental system including a transport region for an immersion lithography apparatus: A lithographic projection apparatus that is arranged to project a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate using a projection system has a liquid supply system arranged to supply a liquid to a space between the projection system and the substrate. The apparatus also includes a liquid removal system... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070139629 - Lithographic apparatus and method for manufacturing a device: A lithographic apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a substrate table constructed to hold a substrate. The substrate table is moveable to transfer the substrate between a substrate measuring position and a substrate processing position. The apparatus also includes a measuring system configured to measure at least one aspect or... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070139632 - Exposure method, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method: A liquid immersion device that has an mixing mechanism that mixes and dissolves a predetermined substance for adjusting specific resistance of the liquid, which is supplied onto a liquid repellent film on the surface of an object (member) of a projection optical system placed on the light emitting side of... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070139634 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method: Lithographic apparatus includes an illumination system for conditioning a radiation beam, a support for supporting a patterning device for imparting a cross-sectional pattern to the radiation beam to form a patterned radiation beam, and a substrate table for holding a substrate. A projection system is provided for projecting the patterned... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070139633 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method using interferometric and maskless exposure units: A lithographic system combining an interference exposure unit and a lithography unit. The lithography unit can comprise an array of individually controllable elements. The lithography system can be arranged such that a pitch of the lines exposed by the interference exposure unit is an integer multiple of a size of... Agent: Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.l.l.c.

20070139635 - Lithography apparatus and method utilizing pendulum interferometer system: Reticle and/or wafer stage interferometers are mounted to a supporting body that is separate from the body that supports the projection optical system of a lithography apparatus. This enables the size of the body supporting the projection optical system to be reduced so that it has more favorable dynamic characteristics.... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070139636 - Polarization rotator and a crystalline-quartz plate for use in an optical imaging system: A polarization rotator and crystalline quartz plate for use with an optical imaging system. The system has several imaging optical components (L1-L16) sequentially arranged along an optical axis (16), a means for creating radially polarized light arranged at a given location in that region extending up to the last of... Agent: Sughrue Mion, PLLC

20070139637 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method using a compensation scheme for a patterning array: A lithographic apparatus comprising an array of individually controllable elements that modulates a beams of radiation and a projection system that projects the modulated beam onto the substrate. The individually controllable elements are provided with a compensation feature that is arranged to provide compensation radiation that substantially or at least... Agent: Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.l.l.c.

20070132968 - Exposure apparatus and method for producing device: A lens cleaning module is provided for a lithography system having an exposure apparatus including an objective lens. The system includes a scanning stage for supporting a wafer beneath the objective lens. A cleaning module coupling with the lithography system is provided for cleaning the objective lens in a non-manual... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070132975 - Cleanup method for optics in immersion lithography: A megasonic immersion lithography exposure apparatus includes an optical transfer chamber for containing an exposure liquid, at least one megasonic plate operably engaging said optical transfer chamber for propagating sonic waves through the exposure liquid, and an optical system provided adjacent to said optical transfer chamber for projecting light through... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070132974 - Environmental system including vacuum scavenge for an immersion lithography apparatus: A lithographic projection apparatus includes a liquid confinement structure extending along at least a part of a boundary of a space between a projection system and a substrate table, the space having a cross-sectional area smaller than the area of the substrate. The liquid confinement structure includes a first inlet... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070132970 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method: A lithographic projection apparatus is disclosed in which a space between the projection system and the substrate is filled with a liquid. An edge seal member at least partly surrounds the substrate or other object on a substrate table to prevent liquid loss when edge portions of the substrate or... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070132971 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method: A lithographic apparatus is provided that has a sensor at substrate level, the sensor including a radiation receiver, a transmissive plate supporting the radiation receiver, and a radiation detector, wherein the sensor is arranged to avoid loss of radiation between the radiation receiver and a final element of the radiation... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070132972 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method: An immersion lithography apparatus comprises a temperature controller configured to adjust a temperature of a projection system, a substrate and a liquid towards a common target temperature. Controlling the temperature of these elements and reducing temperature gradients may improve imaging consistency and general lithographic performance. Measures to control the temperature... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070132973 - Lithographic apparatus, device manufacturing method, and device manufactured thereby: Apparatus and methods for compensating for the movement of a substrate in a lithographic apparatus during a pulse of radiation include providing an optical structure configured to move a patterned projection beam incident on the substrate in synchronism with the substrate.... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070132969 - Microlithographic projection exposure apparatus and method for introducing an immersion liquid into an immersion space: The invention relates to a projection exposure system for microlithography, said system comprising an illumination device for generating a projection light, and a projection objective comprising a plurality of optical elements such as lenses (L5) and enabling a reticle that can be arranged in an object plane of the projection... Agent: Factor & Lake, Ltd

20070132976 - Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and method for producing device: An exposure apparatus includes a first land surface which faces a surface of a substrate and which surrounds an optical path space for an exposure light beam, a second land surfaces which faces the surface of the substrate and which is provided outside the first land surface in a predetermined... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070132977 - Optical integrator, illumination optical device, exposure device, and exposure method: An optical integrator of a wavefront dividing type permits an arbitrary distance to be set between an entrance surface and an exit surface, without production of aberration and without reduction in reflectance on reflecting films. The optical integrator has a plurality of first focusing elements (first concave reflector elements 18a)... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070132978 - Exposure apparatus: An exposure apparatus for exposing a pattern of a reticle onto a substrate by scanning the reticle and the substrate via a projection optical system includes an illumination optical system for illuminating the reticle via a slit that has a longitudinal direction corresponding to a direction orthogonal to a scanning... Agent: Morgan & Finnegan, L.L.P.

20070132979 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method: A lithographic projection apparatus is disclosed in which a space between the projection system and a sensor is filled with a liquid.... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070132980 - Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method: A device manufacturing method includes projecting a patterned beam of radiation onto a substrate, wherein the position of a movable object is determined in a number of degrees of freedom using a number of sensors, the number of sensors being larger than the number of degrees of freedom, wherein the... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070132981 - Exposure method: An exposure method includes the steps of exposing a pattern of a reticle onto a substrate by scanning the reticle and the substrate, and by illuminating an illumination area having a slit shape on the reticle using a light from a light source, the slit shape having a longitudinal direction... Agent: Morgan & Finnegan, L.L.P.

20070126998 - Adding at least one picture to a contact detail in a communications device: A communications device (100) and method for adding at least one picture to a contact detail in a phone book (132) stored in the communications device is disclosed. The method includes storing (302) the at least one picture on the communications device during an audio visual communications call between the... Agent: Motorola Inc

20070126999 - Apparatus and method for containing immersion liquid in immersion lithography: Immersion liquid is contained in the immersion area located between the last optical member of a projection system and a surface that is the subject of exposure by providing a liquid seal located adjacent to the immersion area. The liquid seal extends between the surface to be exposed and a... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070127000 - Method and system for a pellicle frame with heightened bonding surfaces: A method and apparatus for maintaining an optical gap between optical structures in a photolithography system is described. A frame defines first and second opposing surfaces. The first opposing surface defines a first opening and the second opposing surface defines a second opening. A plurality of spacing members are spaced... Agent: Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.l.l.c.

20070127004 - Exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method: An exposure apparatus for exposing a substrate. The apparatus includes an optical system being set at a reference temperature, for directing light to the substrate, an exposure chamber for storing the optical system in a vacuum ambience, and a load-lock chamber, disposed adjacent to the exposure chamber, for converting an... Agent: Fitzpatrick Cella Harper & Scinto

20070127002 - Exposure apparatus and method, and device manufacturing method: An exposure apparatus includes an optical system having a plurality of optical members through which exposure light passes respectively and that are positioned so as to face a substrate, and a liquid immersion system that causes a space between each of the optical members and the substrate to be filled... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070127001 - Method for preventing or reducing contamination of an immersion type projection apparatus and an immersion type lithographic apparatus: A method for preventing or reducing contamination of an immersion type projection apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes at least one immersion space that is at least partially filled with a liquid when the apparatus projects a beam of radiation onto a substrate. The method includes rinsing at least part... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070127003 - Multibeam type scanning microscope: m

20070127005 - Illumination system: A system and method are used to substantially homogenizing and removing at least some coherence from a beam of light.... Agent: Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.l.l.c.

20070127006 - Stage drive method and stage unit, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method: When a transition from a first state where one stage is positioned at a first area directly below projection optical system to which liquid is supplied to a state where the other stage is positioned at the first area, both stages are simultaneously driven while a state where both stages... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070127007 - Method and device for lithography by extreme ultraviolet radiation: The invention relates to a method and device for photolithography by extreme ultraviolet radiation, using a source resulting from the excitation of plasma by several lasers. The object which is to be photoengraved is displaced behind an irradiation window. The radiation is comprised of N successive current impulses whose surface... Agent: Miller, Matthias & Hull