Patent ID: 6950175
Filing Date: 2005-09-27
Classification: G03F

Abstract:
1. A reticle-masking blade system, comprising: a reticle-masking blade having a substantially linear masking edge; a reticle-masking blade carriage assembly coupled to said reticle-masking blade; a set of electromagnetic force actuators capable of levitating said reticle-masking blade carriage assembly at a position with respect to a reference frame and at an orientation with respect to said reference frame, said position within range of positions, each electromagnetic force actuator of said set of electromagnetic force actuators having a first component coupled to said reticle-masking blade carriage assembly and a second component coupled to a reaction frame; an electromagnetic linear force motor capable of imparting a motion to said reticle-masking blade carriage assembly with respect to said reference frame, said electromagnetic force motor having a third component coupled to said reticle-masking blade carriage assembly and a fourth component coupled to said reaction frame, said reference frame defining a range of said motion; a set of sensors capable of measuring said position and said orientation, each sensor of said set of sensors having a fifth component coupled to said reticle-masking blade carriage assembly and a sixth component coupled to said reference frame, wherein interaction between said fifth and said sixth components is via an energy field rather than physical contact; and a servomechanism controller capable of controlling said position and said orientation with six degrees of freedom of motion, and capable of controlling said motion within said range; wherein: at least one of said fifth component and said sixth component is capable of generating a first signal sent to said servomechanism controller; at least one of said first component and said second component has a first coil that is capable of receiving a second signal from said servomechanism controller, and at least one of said third component and said fourth component has a second coil that is capable of receiving a third signal from said servomechanism controller.