Projection objective having a high aperture and a planar end surface
First Claim
23. Projection objective having an image plane and a lens furthest therefrom and starting from which there is a convergent beam path up to the image plane, in which a pupil plane or system aperture is arranged at a distance of at least 10 mm on the image side of said lens.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A projection objective for imaging a pattern provided in an object plane of the projection objective onto an image plane of the projection objective suitable for microlithography projection exposure machines has a plurality of optical elements transparent for radiation at an operating wavelength of the projection objective. At least one optical element is a high-index optical element made from a high-index material with a refractive index n≧1.6 at the operating wavelength.
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Citations
84 Claims
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23. Projection objective having an image plane and a lens furthest therefrom and starting from which there is a convergent beam path up to the image plane, in which a pupil plane or system aperture is arranged at a distance of at least 10 mm on the image side of said lens.
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27. Microlithography projection exposure method for imaging a pattern provided on a mask positioned in an object plane of a projection objective onto a substrate provided in an image plane of the projection objective, in which an image-side last optical element of a projection objective being used is wrung or pressed onto the object to be exposed comprising the following steps in the given sequence:
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positioning the projection objective and the substrate to be exposed relative to one another;
contacting the exit surface of the projection objective and an incoupling surface of the substrate; and
aligning the mask relative to the projection objective such that a desired pattern region of the mask is imaged onto a target area of the substrate in contact with the exit surface of the projection objective. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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31. Microlithography projection exposure method for imaging a pattern provided on a mask positioned in an object plane of a projection objective onto a substrate provided in an image plane of the projection objective, in which a microlithography projection objective is used and an immersion fluid is introduced between a last lens of the microlithography projection objective and the substrate to be exposed, wherein Cyclohexane is used as immersion fluid.
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66. A projection objective for imaging a pattern provided in an object plane of the projection objective onto an image plane of the projection objective comprising:
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a plurality of optical elements transparent for radiation at an operating wavelength of the projection objective and including a plurality of aspheric lenses having at least one aspheric lens surface, where an aspheric lens surface is represented by Zernike coefficients Ki and Zernike polynomials Zi according to where the sagitta p of a point on an aspherical surface is represented as a function of a normalized radial distance h from the optical axis and the radius R of the aspheric lens surface is fixed such that K4=0, where
Z4=2·
h2−
1
Z9=6·
h4−
6·
h2+1
Z16=20·
h6−
30·
h4+12·
h2−
1
Z25=70·
h8−
140−
h6+90−
h4−
20·
h2+1
Z36=252·
h10−
630−
h8+560·
h6−
210·
h4+30·
h2−
1
Z49=924·
h12−
2772h10+3150·
h8−
1680·
h6+420·
h4−
42·
h2+1
Z64=3432·
h14·
12012·
h12+16632·
h10−
11550·
h8+4200·
h6−
756·
h4+56·
h2−
1
Z81=12870·
h16−
51480·
h14+84084·
h12−
72072·
h10+34650·
h8−
9240·
h6+1260·
h4−
72·
h2+1
Z100=48620·
h18−
218790·
h16+411840·
h14−
420420·
h12+252252·
h10−
90090·
h8+18480·
h6−
1980·
h4+90·
h2−
1and where the normalized radius h with 0<
h≦
1 is defined as;
a last optical element arranged closest to the image plane, where the last optical element has refractive power and a refractive index nLOE;
an image-side numerical aperture NA; and
a geometrical aperture sin α
within the last optical element;
wherein the projection objective is used at high image-side numerical aperture NA≧
1.3 in an optical limit range where the aperture sin α
within the last optical element corresponding to the ratio NA/nLOE obeys the condition
sin α
≧
0.8. - View Dependent Claims (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84)
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83-1. Projection objective according to claim 66, wherein the projection objective is designed to generate at least one real intermediate image.
Specification