US Patent Issued to Carl Zeiss SMT on March 3 for "Method and device for determining the heating state of an optical element in an optical system" (German Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,566,092, issued on March 3, was assigned to Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH (Oberkochen, Germany).

"Method and device for determining the heating state of an optical element in an optical system" was invented by Johannes Schurer (Heidenheim, Germany), Maike Lorenz (Aalen, Germany), Eva Schneider (Aalen, Germany), Vladimir Mitev (Aalen, Germany) and Ruediger Mack (Oberkochen, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method and a device determine the heating state of an optical element in an optical system, for example in a microlithographic projection exposure system. Electromagnetic radiation hits an incidence surface of the optical element during o...