Partial objective in an illuminating systems

US6680803B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Jorg Schultz · Aalen, DE
• Alexander Sohmer · Oberkochen, DE
• Alexander Epple · Aalen, DE
• Johannes Wangler · Oberkochen, DE
• Christa Muller · Welzheim, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 1, 2001
• Grant date: Jan 20, 2004
• Expiry date: Jan 17, 2022

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G03F7/70216
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Partial objective for illumination of an image field in an illuminating device of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus, arranged between a aperture plane and an image plane. The partial objective comprises a first lens group and a second lens group with a lens with a first aspheric lens surface. The second lens group has at least a first lens with negative refractive power and at least a second lens with positive refractive power. The maximum field height Yimmax within the image field is at least 40 mm; the image-side numerical aperture is at least 0.15. The distribution of the chief ray angles PF over the field heights Yim within the image field is given by a pupil function PF(Yim), which consists of a linear contribution c1·Yim and a non-linear contribution PFNL(Yim), the non-linear contribution PFNL(Yim) being at least +15 mrad for the maximum positive field height Yimmax.