US5978085A
Expired / Lapsed
US
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Apparatus method of measurement and method of data analysis for correction of optical system
Assignee: Litel Instruments Inc
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Filing: 1997-10-23
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Granted: 1999-11-02
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Expires: 2017-10-23
Abstract
Abstract A reticle consisting of a multiplicity of small openings corresponding to separate and distinguishable points is put in the reticle plane. This reticle is imaged down through an opening O in aperture plate AP. A corresponding multiplicity of spots are created at the image plane of the optical system. These spots have spot centroids relative to the original separate and distinguishable points in the reticle. These points, however, are deviated from their diffraction limited positions by the average of gradφ(u)) over the corresponding ray bundle. The opening O in the aperture plate samples a discrete portion of the entrance pupil. With points spread out over an area of size 2*NAo*za, ray bundles with chief rays covering the entire entrance pupil will be projected down to image plane IP. The above outlined procedure is extended to analyzing the wavefront at a multiplicity of field points over the entire lens train. The process includes using an aperture plate AP consisting of a multiplicity of openings O. Each opening O is centered underneath a neighborhood of points that is accepted into the entrance pupil of the imaging objective. Points passing through all openings O will produce in the wafer plane a number of spot arrays corresponding to the number of openings O. The totality of all the arrays of spots whose centroids can be measured and reconstructed yield an aberrated wavefront φ(u;x) at a number of discrete field points x.
Inventors
- 👤 Adlai H. Smith
- 👤 Bruce B. McArthur
- 👤 Robert O. Hunter, Jr.
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-07 10:44
CPC Classifications
G; G03; G03F; G03F7/00; G03F7/70; G03F7/70483; G03F7/70591; G03F7/706
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 22
Claim 1
Independent Claim
141 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane, the method comprising the steps of: providing a reticle consisting of a multiplicity of separate and distinguishable points in the reticle plane; providing an aperture plate at a distance from the reticle having at least one opening; imaging at least a portion of the reticle through the at least one opening in the aperture plate to create a multiplicity of spots at the image plane, the multiplicity of spots having spot centroids relative to the separate and distinguishable points in the reticle deviated from diffraction limited positions by an average of grad(φ(u)) over the diffraction limited positions of the spots produced by a diffraction limited lens train and corresponding spots passing through the at least one opening.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
141 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane, the method comprising the steps of: providing a reticle consisting of a multiplicity of separate and distinguishable points in the reticle plane; providing an aperture plate at a distance from the reticle having at least one opening; imaging at least a portion of the reticle through the at least one opening in the aperture plate to create a multiplicity of spots at the image plane, the multiplicity of spots having spot centroids relative to the separate and distinguishable points in the reticle deviated from diffraction limited positions by an average of grad(φ(u)) over the diffraction limited positions of the spots produced by a diffraction limited lens train and corresponding spots passing through the at least one opening.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
53 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane according to claim 1, the method comprising the further steps of: the at least one opening in the aperture plate samples a discrete portion of the lens train only.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
91 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane according to claim 1, the method comprising the further steps of: the multiplicity of separate and distinguishable points is spread out over an area of size 2*NAo*za with ray bundles having a chief rays covering the entire entrance pupil where NAo is the numerical aperture of the imaging objective on the object side and za is the separation between the aperture plate plane and the reticle plane.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
46 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane according to claim 3, the method comprising the further steps of: the numerical aperture NAo is the aperture of the entrance pupil.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
63 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane according to claim 1, the method comprising the further steps of: measuring the deviations of the centroids of the multiplicity of spots from their diffraction limited positions to obtain the average values of grad(φ(u)) sampled over the entrance pupil.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
61 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane according to claim 5, the method comprising the further steps of: reconstructing an aberrated wavefront corresponding to the multiplicity of points in the reticle plane that passed through the at least one opening in the aperture plate.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
47 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane according to claim 6, the method comprising the further steps of: identifying the reconstructed wavefront φ(u) with a single field point position (x,y).
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
73 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane according to claim 1, the method comprising the further steps of: analyzing the wavefront at a multiplicity of openings in the aperture plate over the entire lens train with each opening is centered underneath a neighborhood of points that is accepted into an entrance pupil of the imaging objective.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
65 words
A method for analysis of a lens train for taking an image from a reticle plane and relaying the image to a image plane according to claim 8, the method comprising the further steps of: utilizing the totality of all the arrays of spots whose centroids can be measured and reconstructed to yield an aberrated wavefront φ(u;x) at a number of discrete field points x.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
145 words
An in situ interferometer for insertion to a reticle plane of a stepper for transmitting through lenses of the stepper and printing to a wafer plane of the stepper interferometry data comprising in combination: a housing for insertion to the reticle plane of the stepper; means defining at least one aperture attached to the housing for passing a bundle of diverging rays through the aperture; an aperture lens overlying and corresponding to the aperture attached to the housing, the aperture lens for focusing light of the stepper to the aperture for transmitting light through the aperture to the lenses of the stepper for projection to the wafer plane of the stepper; and, a first reticle having a pattern between the aperture lens and aperture for imparting to the focusing light from the aperture lens the pattern for printing at the wafer plane of the stepper.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
145 words
An in situ interferometer for insertion to a reticle plane of a stepper for transmitting through lenses of the stepper and printing to a wafer plane of the stepper interferometry data comprising in combination: a housing for insertion to the reticle plane of the stepper; means defining at least one aperture attached to the housing for passing a bundle of diverging rays through the aperture; an aperture lens overlying and corresponding to the aperture attached to the housing, the aperture lens for focusing light of the stepper to the aperture for transmitting light through the aperture to the lenses of the stepper for projection to the wafer plane of the stepper; and, a first reticle having a pattern between the aperture lens and aperture for imparting to the focusing light from the aperture lens the pattern for printing at the wafer plane of the stepper.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
66 words
An in situ interferometer for insertion to a reticle plane of a stepper according to claim 10 and further comprising: means defining at least one second aperture attached to the housing for passing a bundle of diverging rays through the stepper; a second reticle having a pattern for projection through the second aperture for imparting to transmitted light image information relating to telecentricity of the stepper.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
81 words
An in situ interferometer for insertion to a reticle plane of a stepper according to claim 10 and further comprising: a third reticle having a pattern for projection through the lenses of the stepper for forming regular images at the wafer plane of the stepper, the third reticle having an images size and distribution related to the first reticle to enable optical data to be ascertained from relative positions of image information from the first reticle relative to the third reticle.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
88 words
An in situ interferometer for insertion to a reticle plane of a stepper according to claim 12 and further comprising: the third reticle having a pattern for projection of through the lenses of the stepper includes a pattern of squares; and, the first reticle having a pattern has a pattern of streets and alleys for projecting about the pattern of squares to enable placement of the squares relative to the streets and alleys to impart optical information at least about distortion and curvature of field of the stepper.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
199 words
A method for in situ interferometric measurement of a stepper comprising the steps of: providing a housing for insertion to a reticle plane of the stepper, the housing including, means defining at least one an aperture attached to the housing for passing a bundle of diverging rays through the aperture; an aperture lens overlying the aperture attached to the housing, the aperture lens for focusing light of the stepper to the aperture for transmitting light through the aperture to lenses of the stepper for projection to a wafer plane of the stepper; and, a first reticle having a pattern between the aperture lens and aperture for imparting to transmitted light image the pattern for printing at the wafer plane of the stepper; providing at the wafer plane of the stepper a regular pattern of images; projecting the pattern from the reticle plane by imaging light on the aperture lens to have the pattern of the first reticle project about the regular pattern of images to enable relative projected placement of the pattern from the reticle plane relative to the regular pattern of images to indicate optical data related to at least distortion and curvature of field of the stepper.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
199 words
A method for in situ interferometric measurement of a stepper comprising the steps of: providing a housing for insertion to a reticle plane of the stepper, the housing including, means defining at least one an aperture attached to the housing for passing a bundle of diverging rays through the aperture; an aperture lens overlying the aperture attached to the housing, the aperture lens for focusing light of the stepper to the aperture for transmitting light through the aperture to lenses of the stepper for projection to a wafer plane of the stepper; and, a first reticle having a pattern between the aperture lens and aperture for imparting to transmitted light image the pattern for printing at the wafer plane of the stepper; providing at the wafer plane of the stepper a regular pattern of images; projecting the pattern from the reticle plane by imaging light on the aperture lens to have the pattern of the first reticle project about the regular pattern of images to enable relative projected placement of the pattern from the reticle plane relative to the regular pattern of images to indicate optical data related to at least distortion and curvature of field of the stepper.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
43 words
The method for in situ interferometric measurement of a stepper according to claim 14 and wherein the step of providing at the wafer plane of the stepper a regular pattern of images includes: generating a regular pattern of images independently of the stepper.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
46 words
The method for in situ interferometric measurement of a stepper according to claim 14 and wherein the step of providing at the wafer plane of the stepper a regular pattern of images includes: generating the regular pattern of images by projecting the images through the stepper.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
66 words
The method for in situ interferometric measurement of a stepper according to claim 14 and wherein the step of providing at the wafer plane of the stepper a regular pattern of images includes: generating the regular pattern of images by projecting a segment of the pattern of images through the stepper and stepping and repeating the segment of the pattern to generate the pattern of images.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
88 words
The method for in situ interferometric measurement of a stepper according to claim 14 and including the further steps of: defining at least one second aperture attached to the housing for passing a bundle of diverging rays through the stepper; providing a second reticle having a pattern for projection through the second aperture for imparting to transmitted light image information relating to telecentricity of the stepper; projecting the second reticle through the at least one second aperture to provide optical data relating to the telecentricity of the stepper.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
86 words
The method for in situ interferometric measurement of a stepper according to claim 14 and including the further steps of: providing at the wafer plane of the stepper a regular pattern of images includes providing a regular pattern of squares; and, providing the first reticle having a pattern with a pattern of streets and alleys for bounding the regular pattern of squares to impart to spatial separation between the pattern of streets and alleys and the regular pattern of squares, the spatial separation containing optical data.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2002-11-01 | 2003-05-03 | 2003-11-02 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2006-11-01 | 2007-05-03 | 2007-11-02 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2010-11-01 | 2011-05-03 | 2011-11-02 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |