Patents by Inventor Donald W. Sweeney
Donald W. Sweeney has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 7049033Abstract: Absorber material used in conventional EUVL reticles is eliminated by introducing a direct modulation in the complex-valued reflectance of the multilayer. A spatially localized energy source such as a focused electron or ion beam directly writes a reticle pattern onto the reflective multilayer coating. Interdiffusion is activated within the film by an energy source that causes the multilayer period to contract in the exposed regions. The contraction is accurately determined by the energy dose. A controllable variation in the phase and amplitude of the reflected field in the reticle plane is produced by the spatial modulation of the multilayer period. This method for patterning an EUVL reticle has the advantages (1) avoiding the process steps associated with depositing and patterning an absorber layer and (2) providing control of the phase and amplitude of the reflected field with high spatial resolution.Type: GrantFiled: July 31, 2003Date of Patent: May 23, 2006Assignee: The EUV LLCInventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Donald W. Sweeney, Paul B. Mirkarimi
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Patent number: 7022435Abstract: A method for fabricating an EUV phase shift mask is provided that includes a substrate upon which is deposited a thin film multilayer coating that has a complex-valued reflectance. An absorber layer or a buffer layer is attached onto the thin film multilayer, and the thickness of the thin film multilayer coating is altered to introduce a direct modulation in the complex-valued reflectance to produce phase shifting features.Type: GrantFiled: September 27, 2002Date of Patent: April 4, 2006Assignee: EUV Limited Liability CorporationInventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Donald W. Sweeney, Paul B. Mirkarimi, Anton Barty
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Patent number: 6967168Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for the repair of an amplitude defect in a multilayer coating. A significant number of layers underneath the amplitude defect are undamaged. The repair technique restores the local reflectivity of the coating by physically removing the defect and leaving a wide, shallow crater that exposes the underlying intact layers. The particle, pit or scratch is first removed the remaining damaged region is etched away without disturbing the intact underlying layers.Type: GrantFiled: June 29, 2001Date of Patent: November 22, 2005Assignee: The EUV Limited Liability CorporationInventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Donald W. Sweeney, Paul B. Mirkarimi, Henry N. Chapman
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Patent number: 6821682Abstract: A method is provided for repairing defects in a multilayer coating layered onto a reticle blank used in an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) system. Using high lateral spatial resolution, energy is deposited in the multilayer coating in the vicinity of the defect. This can be accomplished using a focused electron beam, focused ion beam or a focused electromagnetic radiation. The absorbed energy will cause a structural modification of the film, producing a localized change in the film thickness. The change in film thickness can be controlled with sub-nanometer accuracy by adjusting the energy dose. The lateral spatial resolution of the thickness modification is controlled by the localization of the energy deposition. The film thickness is adjusted locally to correct the perturbation of the reflected field. For example, when the structural modification is a localized film contraction, the repair of a defect consists of flattening a mound or spreading out the sides of a depression.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 2000Date of Patent: November 23, 2004Assignee: The EUV LLCInventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Donald W. Sweeney, Paul B. Mirkarimi
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Publication number: 20040142250Abstract: Absorber material used in conventional EUVL reticles is eliminated by introducing a direct modulation in the complex-valued reflectance of the multilayer. A spatially localized energy source such as a focused electron or ion beam directly writes a reticle pattern onto the reflective multilayer coating. Interdiffusion is activated within the film by an energy source that causes the multilayer period to contract in the exposed regions. The contraction is accurately determined by the energy dose. A controllable variation in the phase and amplitude of the reflected field in the reticle plane is produced by the spatial modulation of the multilayer period. This method for patterning an EUVL reticle has the advantages of (1) avoiding the process steps associated with depositing and patterning an absorber layer and (2) providing control of the phase and amplitude of the reflected field with high spatial resolution.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 31, 2003Publication date: July 22, 2004Applicant: The Regents of the University of CaliforniaInventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Donald W. Sweeney, Paul B. Mirkarimi
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Publication number: 20040062999Abstract: A method for fabricating an EUV phase shift mask is provided that includes a substrate upon which is deposited a thin film multilayer coating that has a complex-valued reflectance. An absorber layer or a buffer layer is attached onto the thin film multilayer, and the thickness of the thin film multilayer coating is altered to introduce a direct modulation in the complex-valued reflectance to produce phase shifting features.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 27, 2002Publication date: April 1, 2004Applicant: The Regents of the University of CaliforniaInventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Donald W. Sweeney, Paul B. Mirkarimi, Anton Barty
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Patent number: 6635391Abstract: Absorber material used in conventional EUVL reticles is eliminated by introducing a direct modulation in the complex-valued reflectance of the multilayer. A spatially localized energy source such as a focused electron or ion beam directly writes a reticle pattern onto the reflective multilayer coating. Interdiffusion is activated within the film by an energy source that causes the multilayer period to contract in the exposed regions. The contraction is accurately determined by the energy dose. A controllable variation in the phase and amplitude of the reflected field in the reticle plane is produced by the spatial modulation of the multilayer period. This method for patterning an EUVL reticle has the advantages of (1) avoiding the process steps associated with depositing and patterning an absorber layer and (2) providing control of the phase and amplitude of the reflected field with high spatial resolution.Type: GrantFiled: December 28, 2000Date of Patent: October 21, 2003Assignee: The Regents of the University of CaliforniaInventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Donald W. Sweeney, Paul B. Mirkarimi
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Publication number: 20030006214Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for the repair of an amplitude defect in a multilayer coating. A significant number of layers underneath the amplitude defect are undamaged. The repair technique restores the local reflectivity of the coating by physically removing the defect and leaving a wide, shallow crater that exposes the underlying intact layers. The particle, pit or scratch is first removed the remaining damaged region is etched away without disturbing the intact underlying layers.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 29, 2001Publication date: January 9, 2003Applicant: The Regents of the University of CaliforniaInventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Donald W. Sweeney, Paul B. Mirkarimi, Henry N. Chapman
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Publication number: 20020122989Abstract: Absorber material used in conventional EUVL reticles is eliminated by introducing a direct modulation in the complex-valued reflectance of the multilayer. A spatially localized energy source such as a focused electron or ion beam directly writes a reticle pattern onto the reflective multilayer coating. Interdiffusion is activated within the film by an energy source that causes the multilayer period to contract in the exposed regions. The contraction is accurately determined by the energy dose. A controllable variation in the phase and amplitude of the reflected field in the reticle plane is produced by the spatial modulation of the multilayer period. This method for patterning an EUVL reticle has the advantages of (1) avoiding the process steps associated with depositing and patterning an absorber layer and (2) providing control of the phase and amplitude of the reflected field with high spatial resolution.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 28, 2000Publication date: September 5, 2002Inventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Donald W. Sweeney, Paul B. Mirkarimi
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Patent number: 6235434Abstract: A method for repair of amplitude and/or phase defects in lithographic masks. The method involves modifying or altering a portion of the absorber pattern on the surface of the mask blank proximate to the mask defect to compensate for the local disturbance (amplitude or phase) of the optical field due to the defect.Type: GrantFiled: December 8, 1998Date of Patent: May 22, 2001Assignee: EUV LLCInventors: Donald W. Sweeney, Avijit K. Ray-Chaudhuri
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Patent number: 6210865Abstract: Condenser system for use with a ringfield camera in projection lithography where the condenser includes a series of segments of a parent aspheric mirror having one foci at a quasi-point source of radiation and the other foci at the radius of a ringfield have all but one or all of their beams translated and rotated by sets of mirrors such that all of the beams pass through the real entrance pupil of a ringfield camera about one of the beams and fall onto the ringfield radius as a coincident image as an arc of the ringfield. The condenser has a set of correcting mirrors with one of the correcting mirrors of each set, or a mirror that is common to said sets of mirrors, from which the radiation emanates, is a concave mirror that is positioned to shape a beam segment having a chord angle of about 25 to 85 degrees into a second beam segment having a chord angle of about 0 to 60 degrees.Type: GrantFiled: February 11, 1999Date of Patent: April 3, 2001Assignee: EUV LLCInventors: William C. Sweatt, Donald W. Sweeney, David Shafer, James McGuire
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Patent number: 6031598Abstract: An extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) machine or system for producing integrated circuit (IC) components, such as transistors, formed on a substrate. The EUVL machine utilizes a laser plasma point source directed via an optical arrangement onto a mask or reticle which is reflected by a multiple mirror system onto the substrate or target. The EUVL machine operates in the 10-14 nm wavelength soft x-ray photon. Basically the EUV machine includes an evacuated source chamber, an evacuated main or project chamber interconnected by a transport tube arrangement, wherein a laser beam is directed into a plasma generator which produces an illumination beam which is directed by optics from the source chamber through the connecting tube, into the projection chamber, and onto the reticle or mask, from which a patterned beam is reflected by optics in a projection optics (PO) box mounted in the main or projection chamber onto the substrate.Type: GrantFiled: September 25, 1998Date of Patent: February 29, 2000Assignee: Euv LLCInventors: Daniel A. Tichenor, Glenn D. Kubiak, Steven J. Haney, Donald W. Sweeney
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Patent number: 5986795Abstract: A deformable mirror compatible with short wavelength (extreme ultraviolet) radiation that can be precisely controlled to nanometer and subnanometer accuracy is described. Actuators are coupled between a reaction plate and a face plate which has a reflective coating. A control system adjusts the voltage supplied to the actuators; by coordinating the voltages supplied to the actuators, the reflective surface of the mirror can be deformed to correct for dimensional errors in the mirror or to produce a desired contour.Type: GrantFiled: June 15, 1998Date of Patent: November 16, 1999Inventors: Henry N. Chapman, Donald W. Sweeney
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Patent number: 5973826Abstract: An optical system compatible with short wavelength (extreme ultraviolet) An optical system compatible with short wavelength (extreme ultraviolet) radiation comprising four reflective elements for projecting a mask image onto a substrate. The four optical elements comprise, in order from object to image, convex, concave, convex and concave mirrors. The optical system is particularly suited for step and scan lithography methods. The invention enables the use of larger slit dimensions associated with ring field scanning optics, improves wafer throughput and allows higher semiconductor device density. The inventive optical system is characterized by reduced dynamic distortion because the static distortion is balanced across the slit width.Type: GrantFiled: February 20, 1998Date of Patent: October 26, 1999Assignee: Regents of the University of CaliforniaInventors: Henry N. Chapman, Russell M. Hudyma, David R. Shafer, Donald W. Sweeney
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Patent number: 4949389Abstract: A hybrid optical/electronic system performs median filtering and related ranked-order operations using threshold decomposition to encode the image. Threshold decomposition transforms the nonlinear neighborhood ranking operation into a linear space-invariant filtering step followed by a point-to-point threshold comparison step. Spatial multiplexing allows parallel processing of all the threshold components as well as recombination by a second linear, space-invariant filtering step. An incoherent optical correlation system performs the linear filtering, using a magneto-optic spatial light modulator as the input device and a computer-generated hologram in the filter plane. Thresholding is done electronically. By adjusting the value of the threshold, the same architecture is used to perform median, minimum, and maximum filtering of images. A totally optical system is also disclosed.Type: GrantFiled: October 9, 1987Date of Patent: August 14, 1990Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of EnergyInventors: Jan P. Allebach, Ellen Ochoa, Donald W. Sweeney
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Patent number: 4838644Abstract: A method for recognizing the presence of a particular target in a field of view which is target position, rotation, and intensity invariant includes the preparing of a target-specific invariant filter from a combination of all eigen-modes of a pattern of the particular target. Coherent radiation from the field of view is then imaged into an optical correlator in which the invariant filter is located. The invariant filter is rotated in the frequency plane of the optical correlator in order to produce a constant-amplitude rotational response in a correlation output plane when the particular target is present in the field of view. Any constant response is thus detected in the outputThe U.S. Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. DE-AC04-76DP00789 between the U.S. Department of Energy and AT&T Technologies, Inc.Type: GrantFiled: September 15, 1987Date of Patent: June 13, 1989Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of EnergyInventors: Ellen Ochoa, George F. Schils, Donald W. Sweeney
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Patent number: 4516743Abstract: A beamrider guidance system for missiles wherein a laser beam is given two circular motions around the boresight axis to produce amplitude and phase modulation on the signal received at the missile. The information on distance from boresight is contained in the amplitude modulation and the angular information is contained as phase modulation. A laser optical system with a spinning holographic element provides one of the circular motions for the beam. The other circular motion is provided by a low frequency, circular scanning mirror.Type: GrantFiled: April 18, 1983Date of Patent: May 14, 1985Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the ArmyInventors: Donald W. Sweeney, Neal C. Gallagher, Charles R. Christensen