US Patent Issued to Carl Zeiss SMT on Oct. 7 for "Optical element, optical system, lithography system, and method for operating an optical element" (German Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,436,473, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH (Oberkochen, Germany).

"Optical element, optical system, lithography system, and method for operating an optical element" was invented by Johannes Kimling (Aalen, Germany), Peter Graf (Konigsbronn, Germany), Norbert Wabra (Werneck, Germany), Sonja Schneider (Oberkochen, Germany) and Reimar Finken (Westhausen, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An optical element for a lithography system comprises an optical surface and a photoresistor having an electric photoresistor value that varies according to an amount of light incident on a region of the optical surface."

The patent...