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The ideal optical imaging resolution must fulfill three conditions:
In reality, however, defects in the resolved image occur, due to the laws of refraction acting on the lens. These are called aberrations.
There are five common types of aberration occurring with monochromatic (single-wavelength) light, called Seidel's five aberrations, and two types of color aberration occurring with polychromatic (two or more wavelengths) light.
While it is impossible to completely eliminate aberration, the optical glass composition, shape and positioning of the lenses is optimized for the specific application during design to provide a good balance of the seven types.
For details, refer to the glossary for "Nikkor - The Thousand and One Nights."
Solid materials crystallized with no specific atomic arrangements. This occurs when this layers are formed in a vacuum from vaporized materials as well as when materials are rapidly cooled down from melting state.
Structure constructed in such a way that numerous "L" shapes are formed in its cross section.
With a wavelength of 193nm, this type of laser gets its name from the inert gases used for discharge excitation: a mixture of argon (Ar) and fluorine (F) halogen.
The ratio between the width and height of the rectangular.
These lenses do not have spherical curvatures.
Composed of two thin films with different mechanical characteristics layered together.
A special type of diffraction grating, where the grooves are triangular to boost the diffraction efficiency of particular orders of light.
A long, thin horizontal structure with only one end anchored.
Type semiconductor device is often referred to as the "eye of electronics," and functions to convert optical signals (light) into electrical signals. It is used not only in digital still cameras and camcorders, but also in the camera mobile phones becoming so popular in recent years.
A long, thin horizontal structure with only one end anchored.
Chemical vapor deposition.
A process for forming thin solid film by chemical reaction among vapor.
A device for passive sensing of information.
A device formed on a substrate with a regular structure, which diffracts light.
An electric field is the set of lines of force that act on charged particles. A light wave will impose an oscillating force on a charged particle. Because atoms are made of charged particles, the electric field controls the way in which light is absorbed and emitted.
An excimer (a contraction of EXCIted dimMER) laser is a gas laser used as high-output, high-efficiency pulsed laser light source in the visible short-wavelength, ultraviolet or deep ultraviolet spectra.
Closed-shell atoms of inert gases, which do not form stable molecules in the base state, are excited by discharge to form strong bonds with other stable-state atoms, creating a diatomic molecule. Excimer lasers utilize the transition between this excimer state and the ground state for laser oscillation.
A system for optically transferring a pattern from an original (mask, reticle, film, etc.) to a sample, or projecting the pattern onto it.
A common application is in enlargers which project images from positive or negative film onto photographic printing paper to make enlargements.
FED technology is similar in operation to CRTs in that fluorescent screen is excited by a stream of electrons traveling through a vacuum. The FED, however, is matrix-addressed, one entire row at a time with millions of electron-emitting cathodes. These emitters are a fraction of a millimeter (or up to 5 mm in the case of high-voltage FEDs) away from the fluorescent screen, and they are produced by cold cathode emission.
The collective term for a recently discovered third type of carbon allotrope, following graphite and diamond. Fullerenes consist entirely of 60 or more carbon atoms in a tight spherical or tubular cage-like structure. One example is C60, a soccer ball-shaped molecule approx. 0.7 nanometer in diameter.
A sinusoidal wave that is an integral multiple (2 or more) of the frequency of a fundamental wave.
With a wavelength of 248nm, this type of laser gets its name from the inert gases used for discharge excitation: a mixture of krypton (Kr) and fluorine (F) halogen.
A device comprised of a row of light-sensitive elements, which convert light into electrical signals to measure the cumulative amount.
Originally a technology of printing with stone plates, today it is used to indicate printing resist patterns on silicon or other substrates.
Integrated Circuit (IC) is a high-density structured device featuring wired transistors and resistances on a silicon substrate using lithography and impurity-diffusion technologies. A single IC contains anywhere from a few electronic circuits to millions, and depending on the number of circuits, IC should be described as LSI (Large Scale Integration) or VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration).
A device used to manipulate specimens under a microscope. Using a thin-film finger measuring 0.7μm in thickness and 600μm in length, microgrippers can handle or measure the solidity of eggs or protozoa sized from 20 — 100μm. Microgrippers are also fully operable even when immersed in liquid.
Microknife
Conventional steel knife
Constructed of thin film as microgrippers, the microknife offers outstanding cutting capability. It is used for cutting specimens under a microscope.
One millionth of a meter.
1,000 nanometers.
This frequency is exactly half of the sampling frequency. Any frequency above this threshold is, in theory, impossible to reproduce.
One billionth of a meter (10-9 meters).
One millionth of a mm.
One 1,000th of a micrometer.
The root 'nano' means one billionth.
The phenomenon that the amplitude of the output light is not proportional to the amplitude of incidence light. Products of this phenomenon include frequency conversion which causes the generation of harmonics, and changes to the refractive index of light based on a change in its power.
Chemical-reaction processing using an oxygen radical which is formed within plasma.
Abbreviation for pentagonal roof prism.
This prism has a pentagonal cross-section, and is an optical component used in SLR cameras. Light is fully reflected three times, so that the image displayed in the viewfinder is oriented correctly.
An amount of transparent material is formed above the mask or reticle, and its phase shifted to increase contrast of the pattern resolved on the wafer. This optical lithography method improves resolution.
As temperature rises, most materials change from solid, to liquid, to gas. At even higher temperatures, gas molecules break apart into atoms, and eventually the electrons orbiting the atomic nuclei are spun off.
This phenomenon is called disassociation. When a gas has roughly equivalent densities of positively and negatively charged particles formed in this way, maintaining electrical neutrality, it is called a plasma.
Some plasmas existing in nature are the sun, the aurora and lightning.
Manmade plasmas are widely used in illumination (fluorescent and neon lighting) and fabrication (welding and etching).
Light with a condition in which the direction of vibration of light wave is uniform.
A molecule composed of a large number of atoms, with a molecular weight over about 10,000.
A material which is photosensitive to light, electron beams or other specific forms or radiation.
One of the most common applications is as emulsion used in photographic film.
The ratio between the amplitude of the signal (S) to be received and the amplitude of the unwanted noise (N) at a given point in a receiving system.
Usually this refers to a device, such as a film scanner or a flatbed scanner, which scans an image for input.
A type of stepper, the lens-scanning stepper used for exposure, is also called a scanner.
A device to actively or passively detect information.
Generally referred to as oblique illumination.
Traditionally, light in lithographic systems was perpendicular to the reticle, but this technology shines light at an angle to increase resolution and improve focal depth.
"Stepper" is the general name given to step-and-repeat exposure systems.
Unlike exposure systems such as contact mask aligners, proximity mask aligners or mirror projection mask aligners, the wafer or other substrate is placed on a stage, which is moved precisely (in steps) while the system repeats the exposure process.
Lens-scanning steppers are generally referred to as scanners.
CVD which is conducted under the thermodynamically-balanced environment by simple heating without assist such as plasma, ion, light and laser.
Metals and other materials are heated to evaporation in a vacuum, and then deposited on resin, glass or other surfaces as extremely thin films.
Named for their cookie-like shapes, wafers are actually thinly sliced polished discs of materials like silicon (Si), gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium phosphide (GaP) or gallium nitride (GaN) and artificial diamond. They are the substrates for semiconductor devices.
Founded in October 1985 as one of the creative science promotion projects sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Corporation, under Shoichiro Yoshida. It continued until 1990, investigating methods for measuring, controlling and fabricating objects on a nanometer (10-9) order, and developing equipment to implement them. It achieved 12 major research results, including:
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