2060 results about "Numerical aperture" patented technology

A projection optical system according to the present invention whose image side numerical aperture is greater than or equal to 0.75, and which forms an image of a first object upon a second object using light of a predetermined wavelength less than or equal to 300 nm, comprises: a first lens group G1 of positive refractive power; a second lens group G2 of negative refractive power; a third lens group G3 of positive refractive power; and a fourth lens group G4 of positive refractive power, and: the first lens group G1, the second lens group G2, the third lens group G3 and the fourth lens group G4 are arranged in order from a side of the first object; and a distance D in mm along an optical axis between an optical surface of the fourth lens group G4 closest to the second object, and the second object, satisfies a condition of 0.1<D<5.

A catadioptric projection objective is used to project a pattern arranged in an object plane of the projection objective into an image plane of the projection objective with the formation of at least one real intermediate image and has an image-side numerical aperture NA>0.7. The projection objective comprises an optical axis and at least one catadioptric objective part that comprises a concave mirror and a first folding mirror. There are a first beam section running from the object plane to the concave mirror and a second beam section running from the concave mirror to the image plane. The first folding mirror is arranged with reference to the concave mirror in such a way that one of the beam sections is folded at the first folding mirror and the other beam section passes the first folding mirror without vignetting, the first beam section and the second beam section crossing one another in a cross-over region.

The semiconductor fabrication apparatus of this invention includes an exposure section provided within a chamber for exposing a design pattern on a resist film applied on a wafer, and a liquid recycle section for supplying, onto the wafer, a liquid for use in immersion lithography for increasing the numerical aperture of exposing light during exposure while recycling the liquid. The liquid recycle section includes a liquid supply part for supplying the liquid onto the resist film of the wafer, a liquid discharge part for discharging and recovering the liquid from above the wafer, and an impurity removal part for containing the liquid and removing an impurity included in the liquid.

A method for measuring overlay in a sample includes obtaining an image of an overlay target that includes a series of grating stacks each having an upper and lower grating, each grating stack having a unique offset between its upper and lower grating. The image is obtained with a set of illumination and collection optics where the numerical aperture of the collection optics is larger than the numerical aperture of the illumination optics and with the numerical apertures of the illumination and collection optics are selected so that the unit cells of gratings are not resolved, the grating stacks are resolved and they appear to have a uniform color within the image of the overlay target.

This invention is related to a flow fluorometric device and method employing a two-photon excitation and/or confocal optical set-up. The optical set-up of this invention is optimal for counting small fluorescent biological particles. The active focal volume is diffraction-limited and consequently much smaller than the volume of the flow channel. The excitation and detection concept has been found very efficient for rejection of the background signal. An objective lens with large numerical aperture for focusing the laser and for collecting the fluorescence is used and this restricts the active volume of measurement to a diffraction-limited volume which approximately corresponds to a volume of femtoliter. This volume is significantly smaller than the detection volume of ordinary flow cytometry.

An objective optical system for focusing light from a light source onto optical recording media includes an aperture control filter with a diffractive optical function formed as a glass plate with an aperture control structure on one side and a diffractive optical structure, such as a plastic diffractive optical element adhered to the glass plate on the other side, and an objective lens. The objective optical system focuses three light beams of three different wavelengths at three different numerical apertures onto desired positions of three different recording media with substrates of different thicknesses, such as a BD (or an AOD), a DVD, and a CD, that introduce different amounts of spherical aberration in the focused beams. The objective optical system provides compensating spherical aberration to the three light beams while keeping constant the distance between the aperture control filter with a diffractive optical function and the objective lens.

An object of the invention is to provide a laser illuminating device and an image display device that enable to remove speckle noises in a diffraction field and an image field, uniformly illuminate an illumination plane, and realize miniaturization. A laser illuminating device 100 includes a laser light source 3, a first lens 1 including a plurality of microlenses 10 each having a predetermined numerical aperture in an in-plane direction, each of the microlenses 10 being adapted to expand laser light emitted from the laser light source 3 to thereby superimpose the laser light transmitted through each of the microlenses 10; and a second lens 2 having an effective diameter larger than an effective diameter of the first lens 1, and for compensating for a divergence angle of the laser light expanded by each of the plurality of the microlenses 10.

A refractive projection objective for use in microlithography with lenses made exclusively of one and the same material has an image-side numerical aperture larger than 0.7. A light bundle defined by the image-side numerical aperture and by the image field has within the objective a variable light-bundle diameter smaller than or equal to a maximum light-bundle diameter. In a length interval measured on the optical axis from the system diaphragm towards the object field and at least equaling the maximum light-bundle diameter, the variable light-bundle diameter exceeds 85% of the maximum light-bundle diameter.

When a ratio R between a total angle φ of a widening angle in a median intensity of light of a light source (a GaN based semiconductor laser) and a total angle 2/φ of a widening angle of light defining a numerical aperture NA of a collimator optical system (collimator lens) is defined as R=(sin⁻¹NA)×2/φ, the numerical aperture of the collimator optical system (collimator lens) is set so that 2.0≧R≧0.58. Thus, an image exposure device is provided that can suppress stray light of a light source that emits a large amount of stray light.

Improved optical devices and methods transmit optical images along elongate optical paths with relatively limited cross-sectional dimensions using an improved objective, relay, and ocular systems. In a first aspect, at least one intermediate image formed within an optical component, rather than being formed in a gap between optical components. In a preferred embodiment, a first intermediate image is formed within glass of the most proximal objective lens, with the first intermediate image extending axially along a curved image location within the glass. The last intermediate image may similarly be disposed within a distal lens of the ocular system. By making use of a first and/or last intermediate image disposed in this manner within a lens, endoscopes can exhibit a significantly larger Numerical Aperture than known endoscopes having similar cross-sectional dimensions. In a second aspect, the ocular system allows independent adjustment of diopters, magnification, X-Y positioning, and rotation orientation of the captured image while introducing minimal aberrations.

An image based overlay measurement is performed using an overlay target that includes shifted overlying gratings. The overlay target is imaged and an asymmetry is measured in the image of the overlaid gratings. The asymmetry is used to determine the overlay error. For each measurement direction, the overlay target may include two or more overlay measurement pads with different offsets between the top and bottom gratings. The measured asymmetries and offsets in the overlay measurement pads may be used to determine the overlay error, e.g., using self-calibration. The pitch and critical dimensions of the overlay target may be optimized to produce a greatest change of symmetry with overlay error for a numerical aperture and wavelength of light used by the image based metrology device.

The present invention relates in general to coupling of light from one or more input waveguides to an output waveguide or output section of a waveguide having other physical dimensions and/or optical properties than the input waveguide or waveguides. The invention relates to an optical component in the form of a photonic crystal fibre for coupling light from one component/system with a given numerical aperture to another component/system with another numerical aperture. The invention further relates to methods of producing the optical component, and articles comprising the optical component, and to the use of the optical component. The invention further relates to an optical component comprising a bundle of input fibres that are tapered and fused together to form an input coupler e.g. for coupling light from several light sources into a single waveguide. The invention still further relates to the control of the spatial extension of a guided mode (e.g. a mode-field diameter) of an optical beam in an optical fibre. The invention relates to a tapered longitudinally extending optical waveguide having a relatively larger cross section that over a certain longitudinal distance is tapered down to a relatively smaller cross section wherein the spatial extent of the guided mode is substantially constant or expanding from the relatively larger to the relatively smaller waveguide cross section. The invention may e.g. be useful in applications such as fibre lasers or amplifiers, where light must be coupled efficiently from pump sources to a double clad fibre.

A method of fabricating a high-density array of holes in glass is provided, comprising providing a glass piece having a front surface, then irradiating the front surface of the glass piece with a UV laser beam focused to a focal point within +/−100 μm of the front surface of the glass piece most desirably within +/−50 μm of the front surface. The lens focusing the laser has a numerical aperture desirably in the range of from 0.1 to 0.4, more desirably in the range of from 0.1 to 0.15 for glass thickness between 0.3 mm and 0.63 mm, even more desirably in the range of from 0.12 to 0.13, so as to produce open holes extending into the glass piece 100 from the front surface 102 of the glass piece, the holes having an diameter the in range of from 5 to 15 μm, and an aspect ratio of at least 20:1. For thinner glass, in the range of from 0.1-0.3 mm, the numerical aperture is desirably from 0.25 to 0.4, more desirably from 0.25 to 0.3, and the beam is preferably focused to within +/−30 μm of the front surface of the glass. The laser is desirable operated at a repetition rate of about 15 kHz or below. An array of holes thus produced may then be enlarged by etching. The front surface may be polished prior to etching, if desired.

This invention provides a better apparatus and method for the generation of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (CSLO) images, using a dual-waveguiding module. A dual-waveguiding structure consists of a single-mode and a multi-mode waveguide each with optimum size and numerical aperture for highly efficient collection of the OCT and CSLO optical signals. Separation of the two signals is achieved by channeling most of the multi-mode guided optical power to a CSLO detector. The non-tapped single-mode guided optical wave is further sent to a pure single-mode fiber of a standard OCT system for OCT image generation. The present invention achieves highly efficient optical power usage and hence high signal to noise ratio, together with inherent pixel-to-pixel registration of the OCT and CSLO images, and a cost reduction of the OCT/CSLO combo system.

A compact and versatile multi-spot inspection imaging system employs an objective for focusing an array of radiation beams to a surface and a second reflective or refractive objective having a large numerical aperture for collecting scattered radiation from the array of illuminated spots. The scattered radiation from each illuminated spot is focused to a corresponding optical fiber channel so that information about a scattering may be conveyed to a corresponding detector in a remote detector array for processing. For patterned surface inspection, a cross-shaped filter is rotated along with the surface to reduce the effects of diffraction by Manhattan geometry. A spatial filter in the shape of an annular aperture may also be employed to reduce scattering from patterns such as arrays on the surface. In another embodiment, different portions of the same objective may be used for focusing the illumination beams onto the surface and for collecting the scattered radiation from the illuminated spots simultaneously. In another embodiment, a one-dimensional array of illumination beams are directed at an oblique angle to the surface to illuminate a line of illuminated spots at an angle to the plane of incidence. Radiation scattered from the spots are collected along directions perpendicular to the line of spots or in a double dark field configuration.

Refractive projection objective with a numerical aperture greater than 0.7, consisting of a first convexity, a second convexity, and a waist arranged between the two convexities. The first convexity has a maximum diameter denoted by D1, and the second convexity has a maximum diameter denoted by D2, and 0.8<D₁/D₂<1.1.

An optical device and method for varying an optical characteristic of an optical beam can include a plurality of optical fibers each having an input end, an output end, and a core, wherein each of the optical fibers has an effective area and a numerical aperture, and a beam deviating component for moving at least one of the optical fiber input ends and the optical beam relative to each other such that the optical beam selectively enters the input ends one at a time and is transmitted out the output ends one at a time, wherein at least one of the effective areas and the numerical apertures varies among the plurality of optical fibers such that the optical beam transmitted out of the output ends has a varying optical characteristic.

A part of exposure beam through a liquid via a projection optical system enters a light-transmitting section, enters an optical member without passing through gas, and is focused. The exposure apparatus receives the exposure light from the projection optical system to perform various measurements even if the numerical aperture of the projection optical system increases.

A high performance objective having very small central obscuration, an external pupil for apertureing and Fourier filtering, loose manufacturing tolerances, large numerical aperture, long working distance, and a large field of view is presented. The objective is preferably telecentric. The design is ideally suited for both broad-band bright-field and laser dark field imaging and inspection at wavelengths in the UV to VUV spectral range.

A catadioptric projection optical system for forming a reduced image of a first surface (R) on a second surface (W) is a relatively compact projection optical system having excellent imaging performance as well corrected for various aberrations, such as chromatic aberration and curvature of field, and being capable of securing a large effective image-side numerical aperture while suitably suppressing reflection loss on optical surfaces. The projection optical system comprises at least two reflecting mirrors (CM1, CM2), and a boundary lens (Lb) whose surface on the first surface side has a positive refracting power, and an optical path between the boundary lens and the second surface is filled with a medium (Lm) having a refractive index larger than 1.1. Every transmitting member and every reflecting member with a refracting power forming the projection optical system are arranged along a single optical axis (AX) and the projection optical system has an effective imaging area of a predetermined shape not including the optical axis.

Optical fiber lasers and components for optical fiber laser. An optical fiber laser can comprise a fiber laser cavity having a wavelength of operation at which the cavity provides output light, the cavity including optical fiber that guides light having the wavelength of operation, the fiber having first and second lengths, the first length having a core having a V-number at the wavelength of operation and a numerical aperture, the second length having a core that is multimode at the wavelength of operation and that has a V-number that is greater than the V-number of the core of the first length optical fiber at the wavelength of operation and a numerical aperture that is less than the numerical aperture of the core of the first length of optical fiber. At least one of the lengths comprises an active material that can provide light having the wavelength of operation via stimulated emission responsive to the optical fiber receiving pump light. Components include a mode field adapter and optical fiber interconnection apparatus, which can be used to couple the first and second lengths of optical fiber, or can couple the fiber laser to an optical fiber power amplifier, which can be a multimode or single mode amplifier.