ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,276,917, issued on April 15, was assigned to CARL ZEISS SMT GMBH (Oberkochen, Germany).
"Mirror, in particular for microlithography" was invented by Jan Horn (Munich), Mohammad Awad (Heidenheim, Germany) and Kerstin Hild (Waldstetten, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A mirror including a substrate (110), a reflection layer system (120), and at least one continuous piezoelectric layer (130.. ) arranged between the substrate and the layer system. An electric field producing a locally variable deformation is applied to the piezoelectric layer via a first, layer-system-side electrode arrangement and a second, substrate-side electrode ar...