Patent ID: 7787104

Claim:
Illumination optics for a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus for the exposure of an object field disposed in an object plane to illumination light, the illumination optics comprising: an optical beam influencing element which is divided into at least two beam influencing regions for the generation of various illumination modes for the object field; the optical beam influencing element being displaceable between a first beam influencing position where a first one of the beam influencing regions is exposed to a bundle of the illumination light; and at least another beam influencing position where another one of the beam influencing regions is exposed to the bundle of the illumination light, each of the beam influencing regions comprising a surface which is exposable to illumination light and has a long and a short side length, the optical beam influencing element being displaceable perpendicular to the long side length, wherein: in a plane of the beam influencing element, the bundle of illumination light has a cross-section with a longer dimension and a shorter dimension; and every beam influencing region of the beam influencing element extends in a direction of the shorter dimension by an amount that exceeds the shorter dimension by no more than 10%.