Patent · US Expired

Laser gas replenishing apparatus and method in excimer laser system

US5450436A · kind A · utility

89Cited by
7References
31Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 19, 1993
Grant dateSep 12, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 19, 2013

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01S3/225
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A laser system which realizes its stable operation. In the system, a spectrum width of laser light dischargingly excited in a laser chamber is detected by a spectrum width monitor. A controller controls, on the basis of the detected spectrum width, a replenishment amount of gas to be replenished from an F2 gas cylinder into the laser chamber through a sub-tank and on-off valves to cause the spectrum width to become constant. Further, when replenishment of a halogen gas diluted with a buffer gas is carried out, a gas exhaustion step of keeping the internal total gas pressure of the laser chamber constant is omitted. In addition, a laser oscillation pulse number is counted for a predetermined period of time and a replenishment amount of the halogen gas is carried out according to the count value.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.