JP5368530B2 - Injection-locked or MOPA laser device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a laser device of an injection synchronization system or an MOPA system in which stabilized output and wavelength can be always obtained. <P>SOLUTION: The laser device comprises an oscillator having an oscillator discharge circuit which excites laser gas by oscillator discharge, an amplifier having an amplification discharge circuit which amplifies seed laser light by amplification discharge, a delay circuit which sets a delay time after emission of seed laser light until emission of outgoing laser light, or after start of oscillator discharge until start of amplification discharge, a plurality of jitter correction circuits provided, respectively, in the oscillator and the amplifier and correcting jitter of a total required time after a trigger signal until start of oscillator discharge and amplification discharge based on a charging voltage applied, respectively, to the oscillator discharge circuit and the amplification discharge circuit, and a plurality of drift correction circuits which correct the plurality of jitter correction circuits based on a change in the characteristics of the oscillator discharge circuit and the amplification discharge circuit. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2012,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an injection-locked or MOPA laser device or a gas laser device, and more particularly to a technique for synchronizing an oscillator and an amplifier in an injection-locked or MOPA laser device.

Conventionally, in an injection-locked laser device that amplifies seed laser light oscillated from an oscillator by an amplifier, a technique for synchronizing the light emission of the seed laser light and the light emission of the outgoing laser light inside the amplifier is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000- No. 156535 is disclosed. According to this publication, seed laser light emitted from a titanium sapphire laser device is amplified by amplification discharge inside the amplification chamber and emitted as emitted laser light.
The technique disclosed in the publication uses a harmonic component of a narrow band titanium sapphire laser device as an oscillator. However, the harmonic component of the titanium sapphire laser device has a very low output, and in order to obtain seed laser light having an output that can be amplified by an amplifier, the titanium sapphire laser device becomes large and expensive. End up.

When an excimer laser device is used as a light source for lithography, the center wavelength of the emitted laser light may have to be changed according to the ambient atmospheric pressure or the like. For this, it is necessary to change the center wavelength of the seed laser beam, but this is difficult when the oscillator is a titanium sapphire laser device.
Furthermore, when an attempt is made to configure a fluorine molecular laser device in an injection-locked manner, it is difficult to find a suitable laser device as an oscillator because the center wavelength is even shorter (157 nm) than that of an ArF excimer laser device.
Therefore, as a light source for lithography, an injection-locked laser device using the same discharge excitation excimer laser device or fluorine molecular laser device as that of the amplifier as an oscillator is used.

FIG. 18 shows a configuration of an injection-locked fluorine molecular laser device using a discharge excitation type fluorine molecular laser device as an oscillator according to the prior art.
In FIG. 18, the oscillator 11A includes an oscillator chamber 12A that encloses a laser gas containing fluorine and neon (Ne). A pair of oscillator electrodes 14A and 15A are arranged to face each other at a predetermined position of the oscillator chamber 12A. The oscillator 11A includes an oscillator charger 42A that outputs an oscillator voltage VA. The oscillator voltage VA is pulse-compressed and transferred between the oscillator electrodes 14A and 15A, and an oscillator discharge circuit 43A for generating pulse discharge is provided.
In addition, the amplifier 11B includes an amplification chamber 12B in which a pair of amplification electrodes 14B and 15B are arranged facing each other and in which a laser gas is sealed. Furthermore, an amplification charger 42B that outputs the amplified voltage VB and an amplification discharge circuit 43B that compresses the amplified voltage VB and transfers the amplified voltage VB between the amplification electrodes 14B and 15B to cause pulse discharge are provided. The oscillator voltage VA and the amplified voltage VB are collectively referred to as charging voltages VA and VB.

  When a trigger signal G is output from the exposure machine 25 such as a stepper to the laser controller, a discharge is generated between the oscillator electrodes 14A and 15A, the laser gas is excited, and a pulsed seed laser beam 21A is generated. The seed laser light 21 </ b> A oscillates in a state where the wavelength is narrowed by the band narrowing unit 30. The amplifier 11B delays the trigger signal G by a predetermined delay time by the delay circuit 44 and outputs the trigger signal G3, thereby causing an amplified discharge between the amplification electrodes 14B and 15B. Thus, the seed laser light 21A is amplified while maintaining the center wavelength λc and the spectral width Δλ (hereinafter referred to as wavelength characteristics) while reciprocating between the unstable resonators 36 and 37, and the emission laser The light 21B is emitted.

JP 2000-156535 A

However, the prior art has the following problems.
That is, the oscillator discharge circuit 43A and the amplification discharge circuit 43B have an LC resonance circuit for pulse compression, and the magnetic core included in the LC resonance circuit has a characteristic that the voltage and time product are constant. . For this reason, in each of the oscillator 11A and the amplifier 11B, the time from when the trigger signal G is input to when the discharge occurs between the electrodes 14 and 15 varies for each pulse oscillation due to the variation of the high voltages VA and VB. Such short-term time fluctuation is called jitter.

That is, the time from the trigger signal G until the seed laser light 21A is emitted by the oscillator 11A and the time from the trigger signal G until the amplifier 11B generates an amplified discharge vary independently. As a result, the time from the trigger signal G until the emitted laser beam 21B is emitted fluctuates in a short period of time, which may cause problems in processing.
Further, the timing at which the seed laser beam 21A emits does not match the timing of the amplified discharge, so the seed laser beam 21A is not suitably amplified, and the output of the emitted laser beam 21B, the center wavelength λc, or the spectral width Δλ varies. There is a problem of doing.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an injection-locked or MOPA laser device that can always obtain a stable output and wavelength.

Means, actions and effects for solving the problem

In order to achieve the above object, a laser apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes an oscillator discharge circuit that excites a laser gas by oscillator discharge, and generates an oscillation of a seed laser beam with a narrowed wavelength by oscillation. An amplification discharge circuit that amplifies the seed laser light by amplification discharge, an amplifier that amplifies the seed laser light and emits an emitted laser light, a laser controller that outputs a first trigger signal, and a first trigger A second trigger signal is output to the oscillator discharge circuit, the second trigger signal indicating the timing at which the first delay time based on the charging voltage applied to the oscillator discharge circuit has elapsed since the reception of the first trigger signal. 1 jitter correction circuit and the first trigger signal are received, and the second delay time based on the charging voltage applied to the amplification discharge circuit is the first time. A second jitter correction circuit that outputs a third trigger signal indicating the timing that has elapsed since the reception of the signal, a third delay time is set, a third trigger signal is received, and a third delay time is set. Is an injection-locked or MOPA laser device including a delay circuit that outputs a fourth trigger signal indicating the timing that has elapsed since the reception of the third trigger signal to the amplification discharge circuit . According to this configuration, the wavelength and output of the emitted laser light are improved by correcting the delay time so that the amplified discharge is performed at an appropriate timing with respect to the seed laser light.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a fluorine molecular laser device according to a first embodiment. The circuit diagram of a discharge detector. The circuit diagram of a discharge circuit. The graph which shows the relationship between the reciprocal number of charging voltage, and discharge circuit required time. The block diagram of a jitter correction circuit. 6 is a timing chart in the jitter correction circuit. The graph which shows the relationship between the reciprocal number of charging voltage, and discharge circuit required time. The block diagram of a drift correction circuit. The block diagram of a delay time correction circuit. The block diagram of a delay circuit. Delay circuit timing chart The block diagram which shows the other example of a structure of a delay circuit. The block diagram of the seed laser beam required time detection circuit which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. Timing chart of seed laser light time detection circuit The block diagram of a jitter correction circuit. 6 is a timing chart in the jitter correction circuit. Explanatory drawing which shows the application example of the structure of the fluorine molecular laser apparatus which concerns on this invention. The block diagram of the fluorine molecular laser apparatus which concerns on a prior art.

Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
First, the first embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an injection-locked fluorine molecular laser device (hereinafter referred to as a fluorine molecular laser device 11) according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, a fluorine molecular laser device 11 includes an oscillator 11A that oscillates a seed laser beam 21A whose wavelength is narrowed, and an amplifier 11B that amplifies the seed laser beam 21A and emits an emitted laser beam 21B. Yes. The emitted laser light 21B emitted from the fluorine molecular laser device 11 enters an exposure machine 25 such as a stepper and becomes processing light.

  The fluorine molecular laser device 11 includes a laser controller 29 that controls the entire device. The laser controller 29 is electrically connected to the exposure unit 25 and can communicate with each other. The laser controller 29 receives a trigger signal G as a signal for laser oscillation from the exposure unit 25, and outputs the trigger signal G to the oscillator 11A and the amplifier 11B accordingly. At this time, the timing of the trigger signal G is corrected by a correction circuit 31 to be described later, and is output to the oscillator 11A as the trigger signal G1. The trigger signal G is output to the amplifier 11B as the trigger signal G3 by the correction circuit 31 and the delay circuit 44 after a predetermined time delay with respect to the oscillator 11A.

The oscillator 11A includes, for example, an oscillator chamber 12A that encloses a laser gas containing fluorine (F2) and neon (Ne), and windows 17A and 19A provided at both ends of the oscillator chamber 12A. The laser gas may be fluorine, neon, and helium (He), or may be fluorine and helium.
At a predetermined position inside the oscillator chamber 12A, a pair of oscillator electrodes 14A and 15A are arranged facing each other in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface in FIG. When the oscillator discharge circuit 43A receives the trigger signal G1, the oscillator voltage VA applied from the oscillator charger 42A is pulse-compressed by the oscillator discharge circuit 43A, and is applied in a pulse form between the oscillator electrodes 14A and 15A. Thereby, an oscillator discharge occurs between the oscillator electrodes 14A and 15A, the laser gas is excited, and a pulsed seed laser beam 21A is generated.

The generated seed laser light 21 </ b> A is incident on the band-narrowing unit 30 disposed at the rear part of the oscillator chamber 12 </ b> A (left side in FIG. 1), is enlarged by the prisms 32 and 32, and is incident on the grating 33. In the grating 33, only the seed laser light 21A having a wavelength near the predetermined center wavelength λc is reflected by diffraction. This is called narrowing the band.
The grating 33 has a variable angle with respect to the seed laser beam 21 </ b> A by a drive mechanism (not shown) electrically connected to the laser controller 29. The laser controller 29 can control the center wavelength λc of the seed laser light 21A to a desired wavelength by outputting a signal to the drive mechanism and changing the angle.

The seed laser beam 21A narrowed in the band narrowing unit 30 is emitted forward (to the right of the paper surface in FIG. 1) as a seed laser beam 21A having a center wavelength λc. Part of the seed laser beam 21A is extracted by the beam splitter 22A and enters the laser monitor 34A. The laser monitor 34A monitors the output of the seed laser beam 21A, the center wavelength λc, and the spectrum width Δλ (hereinafter referred to as laser parameters) and outputs them to the laser controller 29.
Based on the monitored center wavelength λc, the laser controller 29 outputs a command signal to the drive mechanism and rotates the grating 33 to control the center wavelength λc of the seed laser light 21A to a desired target wavelength λ0. This is called wavelength control.
Further, the laser controller 29 outputs a command signal to the oscillator charger 42A based on the monitored pulse output to change the oscillator voltage VA, and controls so that the pulse output of the seed laser light 21A becomes a desired output. Yes. This is called constant energy control. The constant energy control is similarly performed for the amplifier so that the pulse output of the emitted laser beam 21B becomes a desired output.

The seed laser beam 21A emitted from the oscillator 11A enters the amplifier 11B. The amplifier 11B includes an amplification chamber 12B in which a front window 17B and a rear window 19B are respectively fixed at the front and rear portions, and fluorine and neon are sealed inside. Inside the amplification chamber 12B, a pair of amplification electrodes 14B and 15B are installed in the direction perpendicular to the paper surface in FIG. A perforated concave mirror 36 having an injection hole 45 is provided behind the rear window 19B, and a convex mirror 37 is provided in front of the front window 17B so as to face the injection hole 45, thereby constituting an unstable resonator. ing.
In FIG. 1, the seed laser light 21A oscillated from the oscillator 11A passes through the rear window 19 from the injection hole 45 of the perforated concave mirror 36 and enters the amplifier 11B.
The amplification charger 42B applies the amplification voltage VB to the amplification discharge circuit 43B. The amplified voltage VB is pulse-compressed by the amplification discharge circuit 43B based on the trigger signal G3 corrected by the correction circuit 31 and the delay circuit 44, and is applied in a pulse form between the amplification electrodes 14B and 15B. Thereby, an amplified discharge is generated in synchronization with the seed laser beam 21A, and the seed laser beam 21A is amplified while being reflected between the perforated concave mirror 36 and the convex mirror 37.
As a result, the seed laser beam 21A is amplified in pulse output while maintaining the wavelength characteristics, and is emitted from the periphery of the convex mirror 37 as the emitted laser beam 21B.

The oscillator 11A and the amplifier 11B are respectively provided with an oscillator discharge detector 35A and an amplified discharge detector 35B for detecting that the oscillator discharge and the amplified discharge are performed. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the discharge detectors 35A and 35B include a coil 46 and a light-emitting diode 49 that connects the two electrodes. When discharge occurs, electromagnetic induction is generated in the coil 46 by electromagnetic waves generated from the discharge, current flows, and the light emitting diode 49 emits light. The light emission 47 of the light emitting diode 49 is guided to the photodetector 50 by the optical fiber 48, and the discharge is detected by the electric signal output from the photodetector 50.
Thus, since the light emitting diode 49 is used, the electromagnetic wave of discharge is electrically cut off, the discharge detector 35 is less likely to malfunction, and discharge can be reliably detected.

Further, as described above, the fluorine molecular laser device 11 includes the correction circuit 31 for synchronizing the seed laser light 21A and the emitted laser light 21B emitted from the oscillator 11A with the trigger signal G as a reference.
The correction circuit 31 includes jitter correction circuits 39A and 39B that suppress the short-term fluctuation of the time required from the trigger signal G to the occurrence of discharge due to the fluctuation of the oscillator voltage VA. In addition, while the characteristics of the discharge circuits 43A and 43B change due to a long-term temperature change or the like, there are provided drift correction circuits 40A and 40B that match the correction coefficients of the jitter correction circuits 39A and 39B with this characteristic change. The jitter correction circuits 39A and 39B are provided in the oscillator 11A and the amplifier 11B, respectively, and the drift correction circuits 40A and 40B are the same.
Further, the correction circuit 31 adjusts the delay time ΔT from the emission of the seed laser beam 21A to the emission of the emitted laser beam 21B or from the start of the oscillator discharge to the start of the amplified discharge to a predetermined optimum delay time ΔT0. A correction circuit 41 is provided.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the circuit configuration of the oscillator discharge circuit 43A. The circuit configuration of the amplification discharge circuit 43B is substantially the same.
In FIG. 3, the oscillator discharge circuit 43A includes a charging capacitor C0, a switching element SW, an assist coil L0, a first saturable reactor L1, a first capacitor C1, a second saturable reactor L2, And a second capacitor C2. The first saturable reactor L1 and the first capacitor C1 constitute a first LC resonance circuit 51, and the second saturable reactor L2 and the second capacitor C2 constitute a second LC resonance circuit 52, respectively. Yes.
Each of the assist coil L0 and the first and second saturable reactors L1 and L2 has a product of a voltage applied to both ends thereof and a voltage application time (this is referred to as a voltage / time product). When it reaches a predetermined value, it becomes saturated and suddenly becomes low impedance.

The oscillator charger 42A applies an oscillator voltage VA based on a command signal from the laser controller 29 between both electrodes of the charging capacitor C0. When the trigger signal G is input from the exposure unit 25 to the switching element SW via the laser controller 29, the switching element SW is short-circuited. Along with this, a current flows from the charging capacitor C0 to the second LC resonance circuit 52 through the assist coil L0 for protecting the switching element SW and the first LC resonance circuit 51. At this time, the inductance of the second LC resonance circuit 52 is set to be smaller than the inductance of the first LC resonance circuit 51, and the current pulse is compressed.
When the voltage between both electrodes of the second capacitor C2 reaches a predetermined value, an oscillator discharge is generated between the oscillator electrodes 14A and 15A, the laser medium is excited, and the pulsed seed laser beam 21A oscillates.

The total required time Tt from the trigger signal G to the start of discharge is required for the discharge circuit required time Td from when the switching element SW is short-circuited to when the discharge occurs, and while the trigger signal G passes through various gate circuits (not shown). And a gate required time Te.
The gate required time Te is always substantially constant from the characteristics of the electronic circuit. On the other hand, as described in the section of the problem to be solved by the invention, the discharge circuit required time Td in the discharge circuit 43 has a variation called jitter.
Jitter occurs because the voltage and time products of the saturable reactors L1 and L2 in the assist coil L0 and the first and second LC resonance circuits 51 and 52 are constant. That is, when the oscillator voltage VA fluctuates, the time required for the assist coil L0 and each of the saturable reactors L1 and L2 to have a low impedance (the voltage application time) changes.
At this time, the jitter of the oscillator discharge circuit 43A is a total sum of jitter generated in the assist coil L0, the first saturable reactor L1, and the second saturable reactor L2.

Therefore, in order to suppress the jitter and make the total required time Tt from the trigger signal G to the discharge start constant, the jitter correction time Tc is added to the discharge circuit required time Td so as to cancel the fluctuation of the oscillator voltage VA. Do it.
The change in the oscillator voltage VA is caused by the following two causes. (1) It is necessary to change the oscillator voltage VA in order to make the pulse output of the laser beam 21A constant by the energy constant control. (2) Due to the characteristics of the charger 42, it is difficult to generate the oscillator voltage VA according to the command signal. That's it.

Details of the jitter correction circuits 39A and 39B will be described below. The description will be given with respect to the jitter correction circuit 39A on the oscillator 11A side, but the same applies to the jitter correction circuit 39B on the amplifier 11B side.
In FIG. 4, the horizontal axis represents the required discharge circuit time Td, and the vertical axis represents the reciprocal 1 / VA of the oscillator voltage VA. Since the voltage-time product is constant, the discharge circuit required time Td is proportional to the reciprocal 1 / VA of the oscillator voltage VA as shown by the straight line A. Therefore, in order to make the total required time Tt constant, the jitter correction time Tc inversely proportional to the reciprocal 1 / VA may be added to the required discharge circuit time Td.
That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the reverse slope correction characteristic indicated by the straight line B is obtained with respect to the straight line A indicating the relationship between the reciprocal 1 / VA and the discharge circuit required time Td. At this time, on the straight line B, the time Tc1 corresponding to the oscillator voltage VA = VA1 becomes the jitter correction time Tc. By adding the jitter correction time Tc to the discharge circuit required time Td, the total required time Tt is always constant.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of the circuit configuration of the jitter correction circuit 39A. In FIG. 5, the jitter correction circuit 39 </ b> A includes a divider 53, an integrator 54 (ramp wave generator), an adder / subtractor 62, and a comparator 55.
FIG. 6 shows a timing chart in the jitter correction circuit 39A shown in FIG. The signals shown in FIG. 6 are the trigger signal G, the oscillator voltage VA, a correction signal S1 obtained by integrating a predetermined voltage with the integrator 54 in accordance with the trigger signal G, and the correction signal S1 is subtracted from the offset 1 / Vo. The correction signal S2 indicating the reverse gradient of the correction signal S1 obtained by the correction, the corrected trigger signal G1, and the discharge detection signal Z1 of the oscillator discharge detected by the oscillator discharge detector 35A. The correction signal S1 indicates the characteristic of the straight line A in FIG. 4, and the correction signal S2 indicates the characteristic of the straight line B in FIG.

  In FIG. 6, the oscillator voltage VA applied between both electrodes of the charging capacitor C0 is always input to the divider 53 from time t0, and the reciprocal 1 / VA is obtained as the output of the divider 53. When the trigger signal G is input to the integrator 54 at time t1, the correction signal S1 is output from the integrator 54, and the correction signal S2 obtained by subtracting this from the offset 1 / Vo by the adder / subtractor 62 is input to the comparator 55. The

The comparator 55 compares the correction signal S2 with 1 / VA, and outputs a correction trigger signal G1 when they match at time t2. The time from time t1 to t2 is a correction time Tc that is inversely proportional to the inverse 1 / VA. The correction trigger signal G1 is input to the switching element SW at a time t3 when a substantially constant gate required time Te has elapsed from the time t2, and the switching element SW is short-circuited. As a result, the oscillator voltage VA becomes zero. Then, discharge occurs after time Td required for the discharge circuit from time t3, and laser oscillation occurs.
That is, the oscillator voltage VA after the trigger signal G is input at the time t1 is measured, a correction time Tc that is inversely proportional to the reciprocal 1 / VA is obtained, and this is added to the discharge circuit required time Td. As a result, jitter that is directly proportional to the inverse 1 / VA of the oscillator voltage VA is canceled, and the total required time Tt from when the trigger signal G is output until the oscillator discharge occurs (= correction time Tc + discharge circuit required time Td + gate required time) Te) becomes substantially constant for each pulse oscillation.

Next, the drift correction circuits 40A and 40B will be described.
The drift correction mentioned here is jitter drift correction. The voltage and time product of the magnetic core used in the LC resonance circuit can be regarded as constant when the ambient temperature is within a predetermined range, but may fluctuate when the temperature is out of the predetermined range. Are known. Due to this variation, the gradient of the integrator 54 of the jitter correction circuit 39A changes (drifts). Because of this change, the above-described jitter correction cannot be performed successfully, and thus correction is necessary.
The description will be given with respect to the drift correction circuit 40A on the oscillator 11A side, but the same applies to the drift correction circuit 40B on the amplifier 11B side.

In FIG. 7, the horizontal axis represents the required discharge circuit time Td, and the vertical axis represents the inverse 1 / VA of the oscillator voltage VA. As shown in the data plotted with “■” marks in FIG. 7, the reciprocal 1 / VA always fluctuates.
As shown in FIG. 7, the oscillator voltage VA always varies slightly. Therefore, the drift correction for obtaining the straight line A2 only from the actually measured discharge circuit required time Td2 cannot cope with the drift of the discharge circuit required time Td, and the correction may not be successful and an error may occur.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of the circuit configuration of the drift correction circuit 40 when strict drift correction is performed. In FIG. 8, the drift correction circuit 40 includes an AD converter 65, a gradient calculator 66, an average value calculator 67, and a DA converter 68.
Each time the pulse oscillation is performed, the AD converter 65 reads the reciprocal 1 / VA and the discharge circuit required time Td, and AD-converts them. The gradient calculator 66 performs an operation based on the following Equation 1 from the acquired reciprocal 1 / VAb and discharge circuit required time Tdb and the reciprocal 1 / VAa and discharge circuit required time Tda acquired one pulse before this. To determine the slope m of the Td-1 / VA graph.
m = (1 / VAb-1 / VAa) / (Tdb-Tda) (1)

Then, the average value calculator 67 calculates an average gradient m3 for a predetermined number of pulses based on the gradient m for each pulse. As a result, a straight line A3 indicating the relationship between the reciprocal 1 / VA and the discharge circuit required time Td more accurately than the straight line A2 is derived.
Based on the straight line A3, the drift correction circuit 40A corrects the correction characteristic of the jitter correction circuit 39A from the straight line B1 to the straight line B3, so that the jitter correction time Tc becomes Tc0 to Tc3. By adding this to the discharge circuit required time Td, long-term drift is prevented.
That is, (m3 / m1) obtained by dividing the average gradient m3 obtained by the average value calculator 67 by the gradient m1 of the straight line A1 is DA-converted by the DA converter 68, and this is multiplied by the gain of the integrator 54 to obtain the gain. to correct. This makes it possible to correct the drift more accurately.

As described above, the drift is corrected based on the actually measured oscillator voltage VA and the discharge circuit required time Td. Therefore, even if the characteristics of the discharge circuit change due to, for example, a temperature change, the jitter can be corrected more accurately. That is, since the short-term fluctuation of the total required time is small, it is easy to synchronize the emission of the seed laser beam 21A and the emission laser beam 21B, or the start of the oscillator discharge and the start of the amplified discharge.
The above description regarding the jitter correction circuit 39A and the drift correction circuit 40A applies not only to the oscillator 11A but also to the jitter correction circuit 39B and the drift correction circuit 40B provided in the amplifier 11B.

Next, the delay time correction circuit 41 that corrects the delay circuit 44 in order to synchronize the timing of the light emission of the oscillator 11A and the light emission of the amplifier 11B will be described.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the delay time correction circuit 41. In FIG. 9, the delay time correction circuit 41 includes a time difference measuring device 59, an average value calculator 60, and an adder / subtractor 61.
Based on the discharge detection signals Z1 and Z2 from the oscillator discharge detector 35A and the amplified discharge detector 35B, the time difference measuring device 59 delays the amplified discharge after the seed laser light 21A is emitted by the oscillator discharge. The time ΔT is measured. Then, the delay time ΔT is averaged by the average value calculator 60 to obtain the average delay time ΔTN. The adder / subtractor 61 calculates a deviation amount ΔTz between the average delay time ΔTN and the target optimum delay time ΔT 0, and outputs the deviation amount ΔTz to the delay circuit 44.

  The delay circuit 44 further delays the correction trigger signal G2 corrected by the jitter correction circuit 39B and outputs a correction trigger signal G3 so that amplification discharge is performed at an optimal timing from the trigger signal G based on the shift amount ΔTz. To do.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the delay circuit 44. In FIG. 10, the delay circuit 44 includes an integrator 74, an adder / subtractor 75, and a comparator 76. The delay circuit 44 has a function similar to that of the jitter correction circuit 39A, and a shift amount ΔTz corresponds to the reciprocal 1 / VA of the oscillator voltage.
FIG. 11 shows a timing chart in the delay circuit 44 shown in FIG. The signals shown in FIG. 11 are the correction signal S11 obtained by integrating the voltage with the integrator 74, the correction signal S12 indicating the reverse gradient of the correction signal S11, with the start of the correction trigger signal G2 and the correction trigger signal G2. And a correction trigger signal G3.
In FIG. 11, when the trigger signal G2 is input to the integrator 74 at time t11, the integrator 74 starts integration, and the correction signal S11 is output. The adder / subtractor 75 subtracts the correction signal S11 from the predetermined offset VOFF and outputs a correction signal S12. The comparator 76 compares the correction signal S12 with the shift amount ΔTz, and outputs a correction trigger signal G3 when they match at time t12.
Accordingly, since the correction trigger signal G3 is delayed based on the magnitude of the shift amount ΔTz, the delay time from the emission of the seed laser beam 21A to the emission of the emission laser beam 21B, or from the start of the oscillator discharge to the start of the amplified discharge. ΔT coincides with the optimum delay time ΔT0, and amplification is preferably performed.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of the delay circuit 44. In FIG. 12, the delay circuit 44 includes a preset circuit 63 and a preset counter 64. The preset circuit 63 receives a preset value proportional to the shift amount ΔTz each time the discharge detection signal Z2 for amplified discharge is input a predetermined number of times. The preset counter 64 starts counting the number of clock pulses Ck after the correction trigger signal G2 is input. When the preset counter 64 matches the preset value, the preset counter 64 outputs the correction trigger signal G3.
As a result, the correction trigger signal G3 is delayed until the shift amount ΔTz disappears, so that the delay time ΔT from the emission of the seed laser beam 21A to the emission of the emitted laser beam 21B or from the start of the oscillator discharge to the start of the amplified discharge is optimal In accordance with the delay time ΔT0, amplification is preferably performed.

Next, a technique for confirming whether or not the emission of the seed laser beam 21A and the emission laser beam 21B or the start of the oscillator discharge and the start of the amplified discharge are suitably performed will be described.
As described above, the laser controller 29 detects at least one of the output of the emitted laser beam 21B, the center wavelength λc, and the spectrum width Δλ based on the output signal of the laser monitor 34B. At this time, if the emission of the seed laser beam 21A and the emission laser beam 21B or the synchronization between the start of the oscillator discharge and the start of the amplified discharge is inappropriate, the output or wavelength parameter of the emission laser beam 21B is It is known that the value deviates from a predetermined value.
Therefore, if at least one of the detected values of these laser parameters (output, center wavelength λc, and spectral width Δλ) deviates from a predetermined allowable range, the laser controller 29 is not synchronized. It judges and outputs the abnormal signal which notifies that it is not synchronizing with the exposure machine 25. FIG. As a result, processing is prevented from being performed by the emitted laser light 21B having an inappropriate wavelength or output.
Further, the laser controller 29 detects at least one of the laser parameters for the seed laser light 21A. Even when at least one of these laser parameters falls outside the predetermined allowable range, the laser controller 29 determines that it is not synchronized and outputs an abnormal signal that informs the exposure machine 25 that it is not synchronized. Output.

Then, the laser controller 29 causes the oscillator 11A to perform laser oscillation at a predetermined oscillator voltage VA and pulse frequency. Then, wavelength control and constant energy control are performed, and the laser parameter of the seed laser beam 21A emitted from the oscillator 11A is returned to the allowable range.
Next, the laser controller 29 causes the amplifier 11B to perform amplification discharge, emit the emitted laser light 21, and monitor the laser parameters. Then, a command is output to the delay circuit 44 to forcibly change the delay time so that these are all within the allowable range, and the output timing of the correction trigger signal G3 is controlled. This synchronizes.
Note that when a synchronization shift occurs, the spectrum width Δλ is most greatly affected. Therefore, it is preferable that the laser controller 29 determine whether or not synchronization is performed based on at least the spectrum width Δλ.

In some cases, the fluorine molecular laser device 11 must stop laser oscillation for a predetermined time based on a command from the exposure unit 25. In such a case, the center wavelength of the oscillator 11A is shifted or not synchronized due to a temperature change or the like during stoppage. To prevent this, the fluorine molecular laser device 11 is not shown when it is stopped for a predetermined time or more. The shutter is closed so that the emitted laser beam 21B is not emitted to the exposure device 25, and oscillation is continuously performed. This is called adjusted oscillation. During this adjusted oscillation, the laser controller 29 monitors the laser parameters of the oscillator 11A and the amplifier 11B, and continues constant energy control and wavelength control so that they are within the allowable range. Also, the jitter and drift are corrected during the adjustment oscillation. As a result, when the operation of the fluorine molecular laser device 11 is resumed, the emitted laser light 21B having a laser parameter within an allowable range can be obtained, and the processing can be resumed quickly.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, in the injection-locked fluorine molecular laser device 11, each of the oscillator 11A and the amplifier 11B includes the jitter correction circuits 39A and 39B for correcting the jitter. . As a result, the oscillator 11A and the amplifier 11B discharge at a constant timing with respect to the trigger signal G, respectively, and the timing at which the emitted laser light 21B is emitted becomes constant. Therefore, since the emitted laser beam 21B is always incident on the exposure device 25 at a constant timing, the processing is suitably performed. Further, since the emission of the seed laser beam 21A and the emission of the emission laser beam 21B, or the start of the oscillator discharge and the start of the amplified discharge are always synchronized, the emission laser beam 21B having a desired laser parameter can be obtained. Processing is suitably performed.
Further, such jitter correction is performed based on the oscillator voltage VA after the trigger signal G. Thus, accurate correction can be performed based on the latest oscillator voltage VA.

Next, a second embodiment will be described. In the second embodiment, a technique for making the time required from the trigger signal G to the emission of the emitted laser light 21 constant will be described.
According to the drift correction described above, as shown in FIG. 7, the discharge circuit required time Td is changed from Td0 to Td3, and the jitter correction time Tc is changed from Tc0 to Tc3, both of which are shortened. Accordingly, the total required time Tt obtained by adding the gate required time Te to these sums, that is, the time from when the trigger signal G is input to when the emitted laser light 21B is emitted is shortened. Note that when the discharge circuit required time Td becomes longer due to the characteristics of the discharge circuits 43A and 43B, the jitter correction time Tc also becomes longer, and the time from when the trigger signal G is input to when the emitted laser light 21B is emitted. Becomes longer.

However, if the time required for the emitted laser light from when the trigger signal G is output until the emitted laser light 21B enters the exposure device 25 is not substantially constant, it is unclear when the emitted laser light 21B is incident. Processing is not performed well. For this reason, in the present embodiment, correction is performed so that the required time of the seed laser beam required from the output of the trigger signal G to the emission of the seed laser beam 21A is constant.
As described above, the delay circuit 44 is configured so that the delay time ΔT from the emission of the seed laser beam 21A to the emission of the emitted laser beam 21B, or from the start of the oscillator discharge to the start of the amplified discharge becomes the optimum delay time ΔT0. Control is performed. Therefore, by making the required time of the seed laser light from the trigger signal G to the emission of the seed laser light 21A constant, it is possible to make the required time of the emitted laser light from the trigger signal G to the emission of the emitted laser light 21 constant. It is.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a required seed laser light time detection circuit for obtaining the required time of the seed laser light from the trigger signal G to the emission of the seed laser light 21A. In FIG. 13, the seed laser light required time detection circuit includes a flip-flop 70, an integrator 71, a hold calculator 72, and an average value calculator 73.
FIG. 14 is a timing chart of the seed laser beam required time detection circuit shown in FIG. The signals shown in FIG. 14 are the trigger signal G, the output signal F of the flip-flop 70, the output signal D of the integrator 71, and the discharge detection signal Z1 of the oscillator discharge detected by the oscillator discharge detector 35A.

As shown in FIG. 14, when the trigger signal G is input to the flip-flop 70, the flip-flop 70 turns on the operation signal of the integrator 71. As a result, the integrator 71 starts operation and continues to integrate a constant voltage. Then, when the flip-flop 70 turns off the operation signal of the integrator 71 by the discharge detection signal Z1, the integration is stopped. The hold calculator 72 holds the output signal D of the integrator 71 and the average value calculator 73 averages it.
The output signal D of the integrator 71 is proportional to the time from the trigger signal G to the discharge detection signal Z1, that is, the time required for the seed laser beam. Therefore, the difference E between the output of the average value calculator 73 and the target value indicates the average value of the time required for the seed laser beam oscillated so far.

Next, a description will be given of the jitter correction circuit 39A for correcting the time required for the seed laser light thus obtained so as to be constant. FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing an example of the circuit configuration of the jitter correction circuit 39A according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 15, the jitter correction circuit 39A includes a divider 53, an integrator 54, an adder / subtractor 62, and a comparator 55, and the configuration thereof is the same as that shown in FIG. .
According to the second embodiment, at this time, the adder / subtractor 62 subtracts the correction signal S2 from the offset 1 / Vo, and also calculates the difference E between the output of the average value calculator 73 and the target value shown in FIG. Also subtract.

FIG. 16 shows a timing chart in the jitter correction circuit 39A shown in FIG. The signal description is the same as in FIG. As described above, the correction signal S2 is obtained by subtracting the difference E between the output of the average value calculator 73 and the target value and the correction signal S1 from the offset 1 / Vo. As a result, as shown in FIG. 16, the correction signal S2 is offset upward by an amount proportional to the time required for the seed laser beam. Therefore, the start of the correction trigger signal G1 changes from time t2 to time t21.
The correction trigger signal G1 is input to the switching element SW at time t31 when a substantially constant gate required time Te has elapsed from time t21, and the switching element SW becomes conductive. As a result, the oscillator voltage VA becomes zero. Then, discharge occurs after time td required for the discharge circuit from time t31, and laser oscillation occurs.
That is, as the discharge circuit required time Td becomes shorter, the jitter correction time Tc is lengthened and the total required time Tt is made constant.

In the second embodiment, the injection-locked fluorine molecular laser device has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. That is, this embodiment is a technique for making the time required from the input of the trigger signal to the emission of the laser light constant for the oscillator 11A alone. Therefore, the present invention can be applied to a single laser apparatus having only one laser chamber, not an injection locking type having an oscillator and an amplifier.
As such a single laser device, a gas laser device such as a KrF excimer laser device, an ArF excimer laser device, or an F2 molecular laser device can be considered.
That is, when the laser beam is supplied from the gas laser device to the processing apparatus such as the exposure machine 25, the processing accuracy may be lowered due to a shift in the timing of supplying the laser beam. On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, by making the time required from the input of the trigger signal to the emission of the laser light constant, the laser light can be always supplied to the processing apparatus at the same timing, and the processing accuracy can be improved. There is no decline.

  In each of the above embodiments, the jitter correction circuit 39 and the drift correction circuit 40 are described as being configured by hardware. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to correct by software using a CPU. is there. However, by configuring the circuit with hardware as described, correction can be made quickly, and for example, jitter can be corrected for each pulse oscillation.

As an explanation of the present invention, the amplifier 11B in which the perforated concave mirror 36 and the convex mirror 37 are disposed before and after the amplification chamber 12B has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. 17, the present invention is also effective for an MOPA (Main Oscillator Power Amplifier) type amplifier 11B having no resonator before and after the amplification chamber 12B.
In addition, the trigger signal G has been described as being sent from the exposure device 25, but is not limited thereto. For example, it may be output from the laser controller 29 or output from another device.
Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to a fluorine molecular laser device, but can be applied to all injection-locked or MOPA laser devices such as excimer laser devices.

  11: Fluorine molecular laser device, 12: Laser chamber, 14: Electrode, 15: Electrode, 17: Front window, 19: Rear window, 21: Laser light, 22: Beam splitter, 25: Exposure machine, 29: Laser controller, 30: Narrow band unit, 31: Correction circuit, 32: Prism, 33: Grating, 34: Laser monitor, 35: Discharge detector, 36: Perforated concave mirror, 37: Convex mirror, 39: Jitter correction circuit, 40: Drift Correction circuit, 41: Delay time correction circuit, 42: Charger, 43: Discharge circuit, 44: Delay circuit, 45: Injection hole, 46: Coil, 47: Light emission, 48: Optical fiber, 49: Light emitting diode, 50: Photodetector, 51: first LC resonance circuit, 52: second LC resonance circuit, 53: divider, 54: integrator, 55: comparator, 56: hour Difference measuring device, 57: Average value calculator, 58: Divider, 59: Time difference measuring device, 60: Average value calculator, 61: Adder / subtractor, 62: Adder / subtractor, 63: Preset circuit, 64: Preset counter, 65: AD converter, 66: Gradient calculator, 67: Average value calculator, 68: DA converter, 70: Flip-flop, 71: Integrator :, 72: Hold calculator, 73: Average value calculator, 74 : Integrator, 75: adder / subtractor, 76: comparator

Claims (4)

An oscillator that has an oscillator discharge circuit that excites laser gas by an oscillator discharge, and generates a seed laser beam with a narrowed wavelength by oscillation;
An amplifier having an amplification discharge circuit for amplifying the seed laser light by amplified discharge, amplifying the seed laser light and emitting an emitted laser light;
A laser controller that outputs a first trigger signal;
Receiving the first trigger signal, a second trigger signal indicating a timing at which a first delay time based on a charging voltage applied to the oscillator discharge circuit has elapsed since the reception of the first trigger signal; A first jitter correction circuit for outputting to the oscillator discharge circuit;
Receiving the first trigger signal, and outputting a third trigger signal indicating a timing at which a second delay time based on a charging voltage applied to the amplification / discharge circuit has elapsed since the reception of the first trigger signal; A second jitter correction circuit,
A third delay time is set, the third trigger signal is received, and a fourth trigger signal indicating the timing at which the third delay time has elapsed since the reception of the third trigger signal is amplified. A delay circuit that outputs to the discharge circuit;
An injection-locked or MOPA laser device. An oscillator discharge detector that detects an oscillator discharge and outputs an oscillator discharge detection signal;
An amplified discharge detector that detects the amplified discharge and outputs an amplified discharge detection signal;
Receiving the oscillator discharge detection signal and the amplified discharge detection signal, measuring the time difference between the oscillator discharge detection signal and the amplified discharge detection signal, from the emission of the seed laser light to the emission of the emitted laser light, or A delay time correction circuit that calculates an amount of deviation between the optimum delay time from the start of oscillator discharge to the start of amplified discharge and the time difference, and outputs the amount of deviation to the delay circuit;
Further comprising
The delay circuit sets the third delay time based on the shift amount;
The injection-locked or MOPA laser device according to claim 1 . A first drift correction circuit that corrects the first jitter correction circuit based on a change in characteristics of the oscillator discharge circuit;
A second drift correction circuit for correcting the second jitter correction circuit based on a change in characteristics of the amplified discharge circuit;
The injection-locked or MOPA laser device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: The first jitter correction circuit includes the second trigger indicating a timing at which the first delay time based on the reciprocal of the charging voltage applied to the oscillator discharge circuit has elapsed since the reception of the first trigger signal. Output signal,
The second jitter correction circuit includes the third trigger indicating a timing at which the second delay time based on the reciprocal of the charging voltage applied to the amplification / discharge circuit has elapsed since the reception of the first trigger signal. Output signal,
The injection-locked or MOPA laser device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 .

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