Claims
- 1. A gas discharge laser system, comprising:
a discharge chamber containing a laser gas mixture including a halogen-containing constituent gas which is subject to depletion; a plurality of electrodes connected to a power supply circuit for providing a driving voltage to said electrodes as a pulsed discharge to energize said laser gas mixture; a resonator surrounding said discharge chamber for generating a pulsed laser beam; a gas supply unit connected to said discharge chamber; and a processor for controlling gaseous flow between said gas supply unit and said discharge chamber, wherein said gas supply unit and said processor are configured to permit a quantity less than 0.2 mbar of said halogen-containing constituent gas to inject into said discharge chamber at selected intervals.
- 2. The laser system of claim 1, wherein said amount of constituent gas to be injected into said discharge chamber is less than 0.1 mbar.
- 3. The laser system of claim 2, wherein an amount of constituent gas injected is varied based on a value of the driving voltage applied to achieve a predetermined output pulse energy.
- 4. The laser system of claim 2, wherein said intervals are varied based on a value of the driving voltage applied to achieve a predetermined output pulse energy.
- 5. The laser system of claim 1, wherein said processor controls one or more valves between said gas supply unit and said discharge chamber for initiating an injection of said constituent gas.
- 6. The laser system of claim 5, further comprising an intermediate volume between the discharge chamber and a source including the halogen-containing constituent gas, and wherein a first valve of said one or more valves is between said intermediate volume and said discharge chamber.
- 7. The laser system of claim 6, wherein a second valve of said one or more valves is between said intermediate volume and said source including the halogen-containing constituent gas.
- 8. A gas discharge laser system, comprising:
a discharge chamber containing a laser gas mixture including a halogen-containing constituent gas which is subject to depletion; a plurality of electrodes connected to a power supply circuit for providing a driving voltage to said electrodes as a pulsed discharge to energize said laser gas mixture; a resonator surrounding said discharge chamber for generating a pulsed laser beam; a gas supply unit connected to said discharge chamber; and a processor for controlling gaseous flow between said gas supply unit and said discharge chamber, wherein said gas supply unit and said processor are configured to permit a quantity less than 7% of said halogen-containing constituent gas presently within said discharge chamber to inject into said discharge chamber at selected intervals.
- 9. The laser system of claim 8, wherein said quantity of said halogen-containing constituent gas is less than 5% of said halogen-containing constituent gas presently within said discharge chamber.
- 10. The laser system of claim 8, wherein an amount of constituent gas injected is varied based on a value of the driving voltage applied to achieve a predetermined output pulse energy.
- 11. The laser system of claim 8, wherein said intervals are varied based on a value of the driving voltage applied to achieve a predetermined output pulse energy.
- 12. The laser system of claim 8, wherein said processor controls one or more valves between said gas supply unit and said discharge chamber for initiating an injection of said constituent gas.
- 13. The laser system of claim 12, further comprising an intermediate volume between the discharge chamber and a source including the halogen-containing constituent gas, and wherein a first valve of said one or more valves is between said intermediate volume and said discharge chamber.
- 14. The laser system of claim 13, wherein a second valve of said one or more valves is between said intermediate volume and said source including the halogen-containing constituent gas.
- 15. A method for controlling a composition of a gas mixture within a discharge chamber of a gas discharge laser system, comprising the steps of:
monitoring an input driving voltage of a pulse power circuit of the laser; monitoring a second parameter indicative of the concentration of a constituent gas of the gas mixture; and determining an amount of constituent gas less than 0.2 mbar to be injected into said discharge chamber based on a value of the driving voltage applied to achieve a predetermined output pulse energy.
- 16. The method of claim 15, wherein said amount of constituent gas to be injected into said discharge chamber is less than 0.1 mbar.
- 17. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of injecting said amount of said constituent gas into said discharge chamber at selected intervals when a predetermined value of said second parameter is reached.
- 18. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of injecting said constituent gas into said discharge chamber at said interval when a predetermined value of said second parameter based on said predetermined interval is reached.
- 19. The method of claim 15, further comprising the steps of controlling a first valve for permitting an intermediate volume between a source of said halogen-containing constituent gas and said discharge chamber to be filled, and controlling a second valve between said intermediate volume and said discharge chamber to allow the gas within said intermediate volume to inject into said discharge chamber.
- 20. A method for controlling a composition of a gas mixture within a discharge chamber of a gas discharge laser system, comprising the steps of:
monitoring an input driving voltage of a pulse power circuit of the laser; monitoring a second parameter indicative of the concentration of a halogen-containing constituent gas of the gas mixture; and determining an amount of halogen-containing constituent gas less than 7% of an amount of said halogen-containing constituent gas presently within said discharge chamber to be injected into said discharge chamber based on a value of the driving voltage applied to achieve a predetermined output pulse energy.
- 21. The method of claim 20, wherein said amount of said halogen-containing constituent gas determined to be injected is less than 5% of the amount of said halogen-containing constituent gas presently within said discharge chamber.
- 22. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of injecting said amount of said constituent gas into said discharge chamber at selected intervals when a predetermined value of said second parameter is reached.
- 23. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of injecting said constituent gas into said discharge chamber at said interval when a predetermined value of said second parameter based on said predetermined interval is reached.
- 24. The method of claim 20, further comprising the steps of controlling a first valve for permitting an intermediate volume between a source of said halogen-containing constituent gas and said discharge chamber to be filled, and controlling a second valve between said intermediate volume and said discharge chamber to allow the gas within said intermediate volume to inject into said discharge chamber.
PRIORITY
[0001] This application is a 37 CFR 53(b) continuation application which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. no. 09/734,459, filed Dec. 11, 2000, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/171,717, filed Dec. 22, 1999, and which is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/447,882, filed Nov. 23, 1999, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/124,785, filed Mar. 17, 1999, wherein the above applications are assigned to the same assignee as the present application and are hereby incorporated by reference.
Provisional Applications (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60171717 |
Dec 1999 |
US |
|
60124785 |
Mar 1999 |
US |
Continuations (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09734459 |
Dec 2000 |
US |
Child |
10121292 |
Apr 2002 |
US |
Parent |
09447882 |
Nov 1999 |
US |
Child |
10121292 |
Apr 2002 |
US |