ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,372,877, issued on July 29, was assigned to Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH (Oberkochen, Germany).
"Projection exposure apparatus for semiconductor lithography" was invented by Markus Raab (Schillingsfuerst, Germany), Andreas Raba (Niederschoenenfeld, Germany), Mirko Buechsenschuetz (Schweinfurt, Germany) and Matthias Manger (Aalen-Unterkochen, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A projection exposure apparatus comprises an optical element. The optical element comprises a main body and an actuator for deforming an optically effective surface formed on the main body. The actuator is in a recess in the rear side of the main body."
The patent was f...