US 11,921,297 B2
System and method for pumping laser sustained plasma with an illumination source having modified pupil power distribution
Ilya Bezel, Mountain View, CA (US); Matthew Derstine, Los Gatos, CA (US); Andrey Stepanov, Moscow (RU); and Nikolay Sherbak, Moscow (RU)
Assigned to KLA Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US)
Filed by KLA Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US)
Filed on Feb. 28, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/682,919.
Application 17/682,919 is a continuation of application No. 16/186,320, filed on Nov. 9, 2018, granted, now 11,262,591.
Prior Publication US 2022/0187610 A1, Jun. 16, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G02B 27/09 (2006.01); G02B 5/00 (2006.01); H01S 3/00 (2006.01); H05G 2/00 (2006.01); H05H 1/02 (2006.01); H01S 3/16 (2006.01)
CPC G02B 27/0927 (2013.01) [G02B 5/001 (2013.01); G02B 27/0944 (2013.01); G02B 27/0955 (2013.01); H01S 3/0071 (2013.01); H05G 2/008 (2013.01); H05H 1/02 (2013.01); H01S 3/1611 (2013.01); H01S 3/1643 (2013.01)] 34 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system, comprising:
an illumination source configured to output a pump beam;
one or more focusing optics; and
one or more beam shapers configured to reshape the pump beam to provide a shaped pupil power distribution at an illumination pupil plane of the one or more focusing optics, wherein the shaped pupil power distribution comprises at least one of a flat-top distribution or an inverted distribution with a central local intensity minimum, wherein the one or more focusing optics are configured to receive the pump beam from the one or more beam shapers and direct the pump beam to a plasma-forming material, whereby the pump beam at least one of forms or maintains a plasma that emits broadband illumination.