| Patent Number |
Title Of Patent |
Date Issued |
| 6560039 |
Double mirror catadioptric objective lens system with three optical surface multifunction compon |
May 6, 2003 |
| A double mirror objective lens system uses a three optical surface refractor incorporating a convex mirror into a right surface thereof that reflects incident light to a concave mirror, which reflects the light back through the refractor and on toward a focal point of the system. This |
| 6456384 |
Moire interferometer with overlapping illumination and imaging systems |
September 24, 2002 |
| A moire interferometer has an illumination system and an imaging system that share a common focusing optic, which preferably takes the form of a concave mirror. Within the illumination system, the common focusing optic collimates light en route to a test surface. Within the imaging syste |
| 6191887 |
Laser illumination with speckle reduction |
February 20, 2001 |
| A speckle reduction system divides pulses of coherent radiation into successions of temporally separated and spatially aberrated pulselets. One or more beamsplitters divide the pulses into the successions of pulselets that are circulated through delay lines. Spatial aberrators located al |
| 6043886 |
Interferometric method of measuring toric surfaces at grazing incidence with phase shifting |
March 28, 2000 |
| Toric surfaces are mounted on a transparent support plate and measured at grazing incidence using a pair of leading and following diffractive optics for diffracting a test beam with respect to a reference beam. The leading diffractive optic diffracts rays of the test beam through various |
| 5991035 |
Interferometric method of measuring toric surfaces at grazing incidence |
November 23, 1999 |
| Toric surfaces are mounted on a transparent support plate and measured at grazing incidence using a pair of leading and following diffractive optics for diffracting a test beam with respect to a reference beam. The leading diffractive optic diffracts rays of the test beam through various |
| 5982475 |
Raster-scan photolithographic reduction system |
November 9, 1999 |
| A reduction photolithographic scanning system uses a reduction lens with a circular image field that is shaped to an irregular hexagonal configuration affording different effective scanning widths so that the full area of a microcircuit image can be scanned onto a substrate in an int |
| 5923425 |
Grazing incidence interferometry for measuring transparent plane-parallel plates |
July 13, 1999 |
| A grazing incidence interferometer includes an extended light source for limiting spatial coherence of reference and test beams. A test plate is oriented at a grazing incidence to the test beam so that a first portion of the test beam is reflected from the front surface of the test plate |
| 5909282 |
Interferometer for measuring thickness variations of semiconductor wafers |
June 1, 1999 |
| Thickness variations of semiconductor wafers are measured by interfering two beams of infrared light that are relatively modified by reflections from opposite side surfaces of the wafers. Non-null interferometric measurements are made by illuminating the wafers with diverging beams and |
| 5909281 |
Interferometric measurement of surfaces with diffractive optics and planar wavefront imaging |
June 1, 1999 |
| An interferometer (10) employs diffractive optics (30 and 40) for measuring errors in test surfaces (14) that differ from planes and spheres. A beam of light (28) having a planar shape is separated into two portions (32 and 34). One of the diffractive optics (30) can be used to reshape t |
| 5889591 |
Interferometric measurement of toric surfaces at grazing incidence |
March 30, 1999 |
| Toric surfaces are mounted on a transparent support plate and measured at grazing incidence using a pair of leading and following diffractive optics for diffracting a test beam with respect to a reference beam. The leading diffractive optic diffracts rays of the test beam through various |
| 5793488 |
Interferometer with compound optics for measuring cylindrical objects at oblique incidence |
August 11, 1998 |
| Compound diffractive optics are used in an interferometer for simultaneously measuring multiple surfaces, making multiple measurements of individual surfaces, conveying test beams multiple times, and aligning pairs of the diffractive optics with each other. Typically, the compound op |
| 5777738 |
Interferometric measurement of absolute dimensions of cylindrical surfaces at grazing incidence |
July 7, 1998 |
| Cylindrical surfaces of a test cylinder are measured with a grazing incidence interferometer. Separate measures of a test cylinder's cylindrical surface and a master cylinder's surface are made and compared to obtain absolute measures of the test cylinder's surface. Surface fitting t |
| 5757493 |
Interferometer with catadioptric imaging system having expanded range of numerical aperture |
May 26, 1998 |
| A catadioptric imaging system for an interferometer includes a beamsplitter plate for reflecting a beam of light to a concave mirror for transmitting reflected light from the mirror. The beamsplitter reflections and transmissions produce opposite sign spherical aberrations. A refractive |
| 5724137 |
Fringe pattern discriminator for interferometer using diffraction gratings |
March 3, 1998 |
| An object fringe pattern is distinguished from other fringe patterns in an interferogram produced by an interferometer using a pair of diffraction gratings for separating and recombining test and reference beams. The object on which a test beam is grazingly incident is moved in X and Y |
| 5719676 |
Diffraction management for grazing incidence interferometer |
February 17, 1998 |
| Test surfaces are measured at grazing incidence with an interferometer using diffractive optics for manipulating reference and test beams. A leading diffractive optic separates the reference and test beams, and a following diffractive optic recombines the beams after the test beam is |
| 5684594 |
Object fixturing in interferometer |
November 4, 1997 |
| An object fixturing system applies to an interferometer having a pair of diffraction gratings arranged to produce and recombine test and reference beams. The fixturing system positions an object between the diffraction gratings so that a test beam is incident on a surface of the object a |
| 5654798 |
Interferometric measurement of surfaces with diffractive optics at grazing incidence |
August 5, 1997 |
| An interferometer (10) employs diffractive optics (30 and 40) for measuring errors in test surfaces (14) that differ from planes and spheres. A beam of light (28) is separated into two portions (32 and 34). One of the diffractive optics (30) can be used to reshape the second portion (34) |
| 5650877 |
Imaging system for deep ultraviolet lithography |
July 22, 1997 |
| A catadioptric reduction system operating in the deep ultraviolet range projects a reduced image of a mask on a substrate. A reducing optic made of a material transmissive to deep ultraviolet light has a concave front face covered by a partially reflective surface and a convex back face |
| 5532821 |
Testing of recessed surfaces at grazing incidence |
July 2, 1996 |
| An interferometer (10) includes a prism extender (50) appended to a prism (32) for directing a beam of light (42) into a recess (44) of a test piece (34). A first portion (42a) of the beam (42) refracts from a reference surface (54) of the prism extender (50) to an angle (.alpha.) of gra |
| 5416586 |
Method of testing aspherical optical surfaces with an interferometer |
May 16, 1995 |
| A Fizeau interferometer (10) producing spherical test and reference wavefronts (34 and 36) is operated with a linear translator (50) for making a sequence of subaperture measurements of an aspherical test surface (40). Separate phase maps (88 and 90) are assembled at different focus |
| 5353322 |
Lens system for X-ray projection lithography camera |
October 4, 1994 |
| Optimum solutions for three-mirror lenses for projection lithography cameras using X-ray radiation to image a mask on a wafer are represented as single points within regions of two-dimensional magnification space defined by the magnification of a convex mirror as one coordinate and the |
| 5349434 |
Method of measuring artifact taper |
September 20, 1994 |
| An interferometer (14) performs three topographical measures of an artifact (12) to determine taper between opposing surfaces (50 and 52) of the artifact (12) mounted on three points of support (30, 32, and 34). Two sets of three data points (60, 62, and 64 and 68, 70, and 72) are ex |
