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 a layer thickness adjustment section. The rotation body is disposed at a position onto which the energy beam is incident, and includes a groove overlapping with an incident area of the energy beam. The raw material supply section supplies the groove with the liquid raw material. The layer thickness adjustment section adjusts a layer thickness of the liquid raw material such that a front surface of the liquid raw material forms a concave surface in response to the groove in the incident area of the energy beam.

An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source device for generating EUV light through a plasma reaction, includes: a focusing lens for focusing a laser beam generated from a laser source; a vacuum chamber for providing a vacuum environment to generate the laser beam focused on the focusing lens as the EUV light through the plasma reaction; a gas jet nozzle for supplying a plasma reaction gas to the laser beam focused on the focusing lens to generate the EUV light; and a gas supply part for supplying the plasma reaction gas to the gas jet nozzle from the outside.

In a method of generating extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation in a semiconductor manufacturing system one or more streams of a gas is directed, through one or more gas outlets mounted over a rim of a collector mirror of an EUV radiation source, to generate a flow of the gas over a surface of the collector mirror. The one or more flow rates of the one or more streams of the gas are adjusted to reduce an amount of metal debris deposited on the surface of the collector mirror.

An extreme ultraviolet light generation method includes a target supply step of outputting a droplet target into a chamber, a prepulse laser light irradiation step of irradiating the droplet target with prepulse laser light to generate a diffusion target, and a main pulse laser light irradiation step of irradiating the diffusion target with main pulse laser light to generate extreme ultraviolet light. Here, the main pulse laser light includes first main pulse laser light and second main pulse laser light, and in the main pulse laser light irradiation step, the diffusion target is irradiated with the first main pulse laser light having higher energy density at a central portion than at an outer peripheral portion and the second main pulse laser light having higher energy density at the outer peripheral portion than at the central portion.

An EUV light source target material handling system is disclosed which includes a target material dispenser and a target material repository including a nozzle with a radial trench design. The nozzle may be formed from a silicon-on-insulator wafer.

A droplet generator nozzle (800, 820/830) includes a metal body (802, 822), a metal fitting (812, 823/833) arranged adjacent to the metal body, and a capillary (804, 824/834) comprising a first end and a second end. The first end of the capillary is disposed within the metal fitting, and the capillary is configured to eject initial droplets of a material from the second end of the capillary. The droplet generator nozzle further includes an electromechanical element (808 828/838) disposed within the metal body and coupled to the first end of the capillary and a fastener element (810) configured to clamp around a portion of the metal body and around the metal fitting. The electromechanical element is configured to apply a change that affects droplet generation from the capillary. The second end of the capillary protrudes out from an opening in the fastener element of the droplet generator nozzle. Droplet generator nozzle 830 of FIG. 8C represents the embodiment shown in FIG. 8B, in a cross section orthogonal to the cross section shown in FIG. 8B.

A droplet generator for an extreme ultraviolet imaging tool includes a reservoir for a molten metal, and a nozzle having a first end connected to the reservoir and a second opposing end where molten metal droplets emerge from the nozzle. A gas inlet is connected to the nozzle, and an isolation valve is at the second end of the nozzle configured to seal the nozzle droplet generator from the ambient.

Apparatus for and method of controlling formation of droplets used to generate EUV radiation. The droplet source includes a fluid exiting an nozzle and a sub-system having an electro-actuatable element producing a disturbance in the fluid. The droplet source produces a stream that breaks down into droplets that in turn coalesce into larger droplets as they progress towards the irradiation region. The electro-actuatable element is driven by a control signal having a sine wave component and a square wave component. Various parameters such as a phase difference between the sine wave component and the square wave component are measured and controlled to minimize the formation of noncoalesced satellite droplets in the stream.

A target apparatus for an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source includes a target generator, a sensor module, and a target generator controller. The target generator includes a reservoir configured to contain target material that produces EUV light in a plasma state and a nozzle structure in fluid communication with the reservoir. The target generator defines an opening in the nozzle structure through which the target material received from the reservoir is released. The sensor module is configured to: detect an aspect relating to target material released from the opening as the target material travels along a trajectory toward a target space, and produce a one-dimensional signal from the detected aspect. The target generator controller is in communication with the sensor module and the target generator, and is configured to modify characteristics of the target material based on an analysis of the one-dimensional signal.

A method of controlling an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system is disclosed. The method includes irradiating a target droplet with EUV radiation, detecting EUV radiation reflected by the target droplet, determining aberration of the detected EUV radiation, determining a Zernike polynomial corresponding to the aberration, and performing a corrective action to reduce a shift in Zernike coefficients of the Zernike polynomial.