US Patent Issued to ASML NETHERLANDS on Nov. 3 for "Diffraction-based pupil determination for optimization of lithographic processes" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,782,825, issued on Nov. 3, was assigned to ASML NETHERLANDS B.V. (Veldhoven, Netherlands).

"Diffraction-based pupil determination for optimization of lithographic processes" was invented by Duan-Fu Stephen Hsu (San Jose, Calif.), Jialei Tang (San Jose, Calif.) and Dezheng Sun (Palo Alto, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods, apparatuses, and software are disclosed for optimization of a source and/or mask as used in lithographic manufacturing and patterning processes. One method includes determining a first pupil having a central obscuration (CO), determining a diffraction order (DO) based on a target design and a mask model, dete...