MICROLENS SCANNER FOR MICROLITHOGRAPHY AND WIDE-FIELD CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY

摘要

A microscopy or lithography system using a low-resolution image projection system, having a very small numerical aperture and large image field, in conjunction with a microlens array (2), each element of which has a large numerical aperture but very small field. The projection system contains a small aperture stop (7) which is imaged by the microlenses (2) onto an array of diffraction-limited microspots on the microscope sample (6) or printing surface (12) at the microlens focal point positions, and the surface is scanned to build up a complete raster image from the focal point array. The system design thus circumvents the tradeoff between image resolution and field size which is the cause of much of the complexity and expense of traditional wide-field, high-NA microscopy and microlithography systems. The system makes possible flat field, distortion-free imaging, with accurate overlay, focus, and warp compensation, over image field larger than the practical limitations of conventional imaging systems. A digital micromirror device may be used as the image source, eliminating the need for photomasks in semiconductor manufacture.