Extending Laser Gas Life

The following methods can help to extend the life of excimer laser gases:

Choose the appropriate laser for the job

• Find the right combination of power and rep rate.
• Lasers that operate at lower pulse energy and higher rep rate deliver longer gas lifetimes than high pulse energy lasers operating at the same average power.
• Operating the laser at less than the maximum rated output can decrease gas consumption.

Select a laser with superior laser head interior components

• Laser head construction:
• Material compatibility with corrosive gas mixtures, such as mechanical assemblies and o-rings.
• Material compatibility with high voltage environment, e.g. ceramics.
• Effective particle filtering of laser gas.
• Effective window flushing system to retard optics contamination.
• High quality optics selection and manufacture.
• Alternate preionization schemes:
• UV spark ionization is most common.
• Corona preionization.
• Microwave preionization; developmental.

Gas processing

• Extends gas lifetime by removing impurities from gas.
• Effective with ArF, KrF, XeCl, and KrCl mixtures.
• Ineffective with XeF mixture.

Contents   <Previous   Next>