In accordance with some embodiments, a method of controlling an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation in lithography system is provided. The method includes generating a plurality of target droplets. The method also includes generating a pre-pulse and a main pulse from an excitation laser module to generate EUV light and reflecting the EUV light by a collector mirror. The method further includes measuring a separation between a pre-pulse and a main pulse. Moreover, the method includes determining whether the separation between the pre-pulse and the main pulse in the y-axis is changed, if not adjusting a configurable parameter of the excitation laser module to set the variation in the energy of the EUV light within an acceptable range.

A soft X-ray light source, including a vacuum target chamber, a refrigeration cavity, and a nozzle. The refrigeration cavity and the nozzle are contained in the vacuum target chamber. The nozzle (36) is arranged in the refrigeration cavity. The vacuum target chamber has a t-branch tube and a multi-channel tube. The t-branch tube has a first outlet and a second outlet opposed to each other and a third outlet, wherein the first outlet is connected to a mounting plate through which a refrigerant inlet pipe, a refrigerant outlet pipe, and a working gas pipe respectively pass and are connected to the refrigeration cavity, and wherein the third outlet is connected to a vacuum extraction device. The multi-channel tube has a top opening and a bottom opening opposed to each other, wherein the top opening is connected to the second outlet, wherein a vacuum outlet is provided at the bottom opening.

In accordance with some embodiments, a method of controlling an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation in lithography system is provided. The method includes generating a plurality of target droplets. The method also includes generating a pre-pulse and a main pulse from an excitation laser module to generate EUV light and reflecting the EUV light by a collector mirror. The method further includes measuring a separation between a pre-pulse and a main pulse. Moreover, the method includes determining whether the separation between the pre-pulse and the main pulse in the y-axis is changed, if not adjusting a configurable parameter of the excitation laser module to set the variation in the energy of the EUV light within an acceptable range.

An extreme ultraviolet light generating system includes a chamber; a target supply unit configured to successively output, toward a predetermined region in the chamber, a plurality of droplets including a first droplet and a second droplet of a target substance; a trajectory correcting laser apparatus configured to apply a trajectory correcting laser beam to each of the droplets moving from the target supply unit toward the predetermined region; a drive laser apparatus configured to apply a drive laser beam to each droplet having reached the predetermined region to generate plasma; and a control unit configured to control the trajectory correcting laser apparatus such that intensity of the trajectory correcting laser beam applied to the first droplet is different from intensity of the trajectory correcting laser beam applied to the second droplet.

A photolithography system utilizes tin droplets to generate extreme ultraviolet radiation for photolithography. The photolithography system irradiates the droplets with a laser. The droplets become a plasma and emit extreme ultraviolet radiation. The photolithography system senses contamination of a collector mirror by the tin droplets and adjusts the flow of a buffer fluid to reduce the contamination.

An X-ray laser apparatus (100) for generating X-rays (1) comprises an excitation laser device (10) arranged to generate re) driving laser pulses (2), and a converter material source device (20) arranged to provide a droplet-shaped converter material, which is capable of generating X-rays (1) by non-linear frequency conversion in response to an irradiation with the driving laser pulses (2), wherein the excitation laser device (10) is arranged for a focused irradiation of the droplet-shaped converter material and the converter material source device (20) is configured to provide superfluid Helium droplets (3), which provide the converter material. Furthermore, a method for generating X-rays (1) is described, wherein superfluid Helium droplets (3) are utilized as a converter material.

A light source apparatus, in which an energy beam transforms a liquid raw material into plasma to extract radiation, includes a rotation body, a raw material supply section, and an electric field applying section. The rotation body is disposed at a position onto which the energy beam is incident. The raw material supply section supplies the liquid raw material to the rotation body. The electric field applying section is set to a potential different from a potential of the liquid raw material that has been supplied to the rotation body, and applies an electric field to a plasma generation area in which plasma is to be generated by irradiation of the energy beam.

Disclosed is an apparatus for and method of aligning a target composed of a target material and a conditioning beam provided to condition the target by changing the target’s shape, mass distribution, etc., in which the conditioning beam includes structured light in the form of an inhomogeneous distribution of a propagation mode such as a polarization mode across a spatial mode of the target.

An extreme ultraviolet light generation apparatus includes a target supply unit configured to output a droplet target into a chamber device, a prepulse laser light irradiation system configured to irradiate the droplet target with prepulse laser light having linear polarization to generate a diffusion target, and a main pulse laser light irradiation system configured to irradiate the diffusion target with main pulse laser light to generate extreme ultraviolet light. Here, a cross section perpendicular to an optical axis of the main pulse laser light when being radiated to the diffusion target having a shape longer in a polarization direction of the prepulse laser light when being radiated to the droplet target than in directions other than the polarization direction.

An extreme ultraviolet light generation system includes a target supply unit configured to supply a target substance to a first predetermined region, a laser system configured to output pulse laser light to be radiated to the target substance in the first predetermined region, a first sensor configured to detect an arrival timing at which the target substance has reached a second predetermined region between the target supply unit and the first predetermined region, an optical adjuster arranged on an optical path of the pulse laser light between the laser system and the first predetermined region, and a processor configured to control transmittance of the pulse laser light through the optical adjuster based on the arrival timing.