Method and apparatuses for optical pupil symmetrization

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United States of America Patent

PATENT NO 9904173
SERIAL NO

14970247

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Abstract

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An inspection apparatus may determine precise OV measurements of a target on a substrate using an optical pupil symmetrizer to reduce the inspection apparatus's sensitivity to asymmetry and non-uniformity of the illumination beam in the pupil plane. The inspection apparatus includes an illumination system that forms a symmetrical illumination pupil by (1) splitting an illumination beam into sub-beams, (2) directing the sub-beams along different optical branches, (3) inverting or rotating at least one of the sub-beams in two dimensions, and recombining the sub-beams along the illumination path to symmetrize the intensity distribution. The illumination system is further configured such that the first and second sub-beams have an optical path difference that is greater than a temporal coherence length of the at least one beam and less than a depth of focus in the pupil plane of the objective optical system.

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Patent Owner(s)

Patent OwnerAddress
ASML HOLDING N VHOLLAND WEIDE EINDHOVEN VELDHOVEN NORTH BRABANT

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Inventor(s)

Inventor Name Address # of filed Patents Total Citations
Shmarev, Yevgeniy Konstantinovich Lagrangeville, US 27 179
Smirnov, Stanislav Danbury, US 18 575

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