Patent ID: 7817250

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: an illumination system; and a projection objective having an object plane and an image plane, wherein: the apparatus is a microlithography projection exposure apparatus; and when light passes through the apparatus: the illumination system illuminates the object plane of the projection objective; the projection objective produces an image of the object plane of the projection objective on the image plane of the projection objective; a polarization-dependent transmission is produced in the illumination system such that, for at least one polarization distribution of light impinging on the object plane, a non-homogeneous intensity distribution in the object plane of the projection objective is obtained; the illumination system and the projection objective each have at least one polarization-sensitive optical element with a polarization-dependent transmission and/or reflection characteristic; and a totality of the polarization-sensitive optical elements of the illumination system and a totality of the polarization-sensitive optical elements of the projection objective have mutually inverse diattenuations.