WAFER CHAMBER HAVING A GAS CURTAIN FOR EXTREME-UV LITHOGRAPHY

摘要

An EUVL device includes a wafer chamber (41) that is separated from the upstream optics by a barrier (40) having an aperture (43) that is permeable to the inert gas. Maintaining an inert gas curtain in the proximity of a wafer (45) positioned in a chamber of an extreme ultraviolet lithography device can effectively prevent contaminants from reaching the optics in an extreme ultraviolet photolithography device even though solid window filters are not employed between the source of reflected radiation, e.g., the camera, and the wafer. The inert gas removes the contaminants gas removes the contaminants by entrainment.