PROJECTION EXPOSURE APPARATUS WITH MANIPULATORS

• Main Authors: LANGENHORST, Malte, LUTZWEILER, Christian, TZOUMAS, Stratis, UMLAUFT, Jonas
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.08.2025
• Subjects: APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED THEREFOR; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; MATERIALS THEREFOR; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; ORIGINALS THEREFOR; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHOTOMECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF TEXTURED OR PATTERNED SURFACES,e.g. FOR PRINTING, FOR PROCESSING OF SEMICONDUCTORDEVICES; PHYSICS

A microlithographic projection exposure apparatus comprises a projection lens having a plurality of optical elements for imaging mask structures and a plurality of manipulators, each of which is assigned to one of the optical elements and configured to change an optical effect of the assigned optical element by manipulating a property of the optical element along a travel. Furthermore, the projection exposure apparatus comprises a manipulator controller which comprises an algorithm for ascertaining a travel command with travel specifications for the manipulators for correcting a wavefront deviation of the projection lens. The algorithm is configured to ascertain an associated wavefront change of the projection lens from a travel vector with a set of manipulator travels using a neural network and to determine the travel command using an ascertainment result of the neural network from the wavefront deviation.