US Patent Issued to Carl Zeiss SMT on June 24 for "Digital micromirror device for an illumination optical component of a projection exposure system" (German Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,339,589, issued on June 24, was assigned to Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH (Oberkochen, Germany).

"Digital micromirror device for an illumination optical component of a projection exposure system" was invented by Michael Patra (Oberkochen, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A micromirror array is a constituent part of an illumination-optical component of a projection exposure apparatus for projection lithography. A multiplicity of micromirrors are in groups in a plurality of mirror modules, each of which has a rectangular module border. The mirror modules are in module columns. At least some of the module columns are displaced with respect to o...