PROJECTION OBJECTIVE FOR MICROLITHOGRAPHY, MICROLITHOGRAPHY PROJECTION EXPOSURE APPARATUS WITH SAID PROJECTION OBJECTIVE, MICROLITHOGRAPHIC MANUFACTURING METHOD FOR COMPONENTS, AS WELL AS A COMPONENT MANUFACTURED WITH SAID METHOD

摘要

Projection objectives of current designs for use in microlithography have a stray light component which varies over the exposure field. The variation of the stray light component over the field can be reduced and/or adapted to the variation of another projection objective by introducing additional stray light. This is accomplished advantageously by pre-adapting or altering the surface roughness of a field- proximate surface and/or by installing optical elements with specifically targeted light scattering properties in a pupil plane. In this, the invention makes use of the observation that the variation of the stray light component over the field and the different respective variations of the stray light components of different projection objectives present greater problems to the manufacturers of semiconductor components than the stray light component itself. Particularly in projection objectives for immersion lithography where a strongly scattering polycrystalline material is used, the invention provides a way to compensate for the increased variation of the stray light component of these projection objectives over the field and to thereby arrive at a stray light component that is constant over the entire field. Furthermore, particularly in the case of projection objectives for EUV lithography, which exhibit a higher stray light component than conventional projection objectives, it is possible to adapt different projection objectives to each other in regard to the stray light component and/or the variation of the stray light component over the exposure field.