Patent ID: 6906789

Claim:
A reticle-masking blade system, comprising: a reticle-masking blade having a first substantially linear masking edge and a second substantially linear masking edge, said first substantially linear masking edge and said second substantially linear masking edge forming a substantially right angle; 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 a 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; a planar Lorentz force motor capable of imparting a motion to said reticle-masking blade carriage assembly with respect to said reference frame, said planar Lorentz 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 two-dimensional 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 two-dimensional 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.