A microlithographic apparatus comprises an optical wavefront manipulator. The latter includes an optical element and a gas-tight cavity that is partly confined by the optical element or contains it. A gas inlet device directs a gas jet towards the optical element. The location, where the gas jet impinges on the optical element after it has passed through the cavity, is variable in response to a control signal supplied by a control unit. A gas outlet is in fluid connection with the vacuum pump so that, upon operation of the vacuum pump, the pressure within the cavity is less than 10 mbar even if the gas jet passes through the cavity.

Degradation of the reflectivity of one or more reflective optical elements in a system for generating EUV radiation is reduced by the controlled introduction of a gas into a vacuum chamber containing the optical element. The gas may be added to the flow of another gas such as hydrogen or alternated with the introduction of hydrogen radicals.

An immersion lithographic system may include a wafer stage configured to support a wafer, a projection optical system on the wafer stage and configured to irradiate light toward the wafer, a liquid supply unit configured to supply a liquid between the wafer stage and the projection optical system to form an immersion lens through which the light is transmitted, and a vapor supply unit configured to supply vapors to the immersion lens. The immersion lens and the vapor supply unit may be aligned in a vertical direction.

A lithographic projection apparatus is disclosed in which a space between the projection system and a sensor is filled with a liquid.

A projection exposure apparatus (400) for semiconductor lithography contains at least one partial volume (4) that is closed off from the surroundings. The partial volume (4) contains a gas, from which a plasma can be produced. Conditioning elements (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25) for conditioning the plasma, in particular for neutralizing the plasma, are present in the partial volume. An associated method for operating a projection exposure apparatus is also disclosed.

A radiation system comprises a fuel emitter configured to provide fuel to a plasma formation region, a laser arranged to provide a laser beam at the plasma formation region incident on the fuel to generate a radiation emitting plasma, and a reflective or transmissive device (30) arranged to receive radiation emitted by the plasma and to reflect or transmit at least some of the received radiation along a desired path, wherein the reflective or transmissive device comprises a body configured to reflect and/or transmit said at least some of the radiation, and selected secondary electron emission (SEE) material (34) arranged relative to the body such as to emit secondary electrons in response to the received radiation, thereby to clean material from a surface of the device.

Provided are an exposure apparatus and a prevention method and system for image offset of the exposure apparatus. The dust cover which is made of transparent material and arranged and arranged at one end of the bearing connected to the lifter enables to check whether the bearing is abraded via manual vision or machine vision, thereby enhancing the yield of the glass substrates achieved by photoetching in the photo process and thus improving the production efficiency of the photo process.

Disclosed is a high harmonic generation (HHG) radiation source which may be used to generate measurement radiation for an inspection apparatus. In such a radiation source, a pump radiation source is operable to emit pump radiation at a high harmonic generation gas medium thereby exciting the high harmonic generation gas medium within a pump radiation interaction region so as to generate the high harmonic radiation and an ionization radiation source is operable to emit ionization radiation at the high harmonic generation gas medium to ionize a gas at an ionization region between the pump radiation interaction region and an optical output of the illumination source.

A method for fault detection in a fabrication system is provided. The method includes transferring a reticle carrier containing a reticle from an original position to a destination position. The method further includes detecting environmental condition in the reticle carrier during the transfer of the reticle carrier using a metrology tool that is positioned at the reticle carrier. The method also includes issuing a warning when the detected environmental condition is outside a range of acceptable values.

A porous member is used in a liquid removal system of an immersion lithographic projection apparatus to smooth uneven flows. A pressure differential across the porous member may be maintained at below the bubble point of the porous member so that a single-phase liquid flow is obtained. Alternatively, the porous member may be used to reduce unevenness in a two-phase flow.