Patent ID: 8659744

Claim:
A projection objective, comprising: an optical arrangement comprising: a plurality of lenses comprising a plurality of lens surfaces, the plurality of lenses including a first lens having an optically operative surface; and a first mirror having an optically operative surface with a defect caused by a manufacturing process of the first mirror, which, during use of the projection objective, causes an image defect of an image projected by the optical arrangement, wherein: a) the optically operative surface of the first lens has a ratio VL 1 of principal ray height h L H to marginal ray height h L R which is closest, when compared to a ratio VL of the other lens surfaces, to a ratio VM 1 of principal ray height h M H to marginal ray height h M R at the optically operative surface of the first mirror; b) the optically operative surface of the first lens is configured so that, during use of the projection objective, the optically active surface of the first lens having a local aspherization that compensates for the image defect caused by the optically operative surface of the first mirror; c) the projection objective is a lithography projection objective; d) the projection objective comprises the following sequence of optically operative subassemblies in the sense of light passage: i) a first, dioptric part that images an object plane onto a first intermediate image via a first pupil plane; ii) a second, catadioptric part that images the first intermediate image onto a second intermediate image via a second pupil plane and which includes a first near-field mirror upstream of the second pupil plane, as well as a near-pupil mirror; and iii) a third, catadioptric part that images the second intermediate image onto an image via a third pupil plane and which includes a second near-field mirror upstream of the third pupil plane; and e) during use of the projection objective, at least one of the following is met: i) the first mirror is either the first near-field mirror or the second near-field mirror, the first lens is a near field correction lens upstream of the first pupil plane to correct the image defect introduced by the first mirror; ii) the first mirror is either the first near-field mirror or the second near-field mirror, the first lens is a near-field correction lens downstream of the second intermediate image and upstream of the third pupil plane to correct the image defect introduced by the first mirror; iii) the first lens is a near-pupil correction lens in the vicinity of the first pupil plane to correct the image defect introduced by the first mirror, the first mirror being the near-pupil mirror; iv) the first lens is a near-pupil correction lens in the vicinity of the second pupil plane to correct the image defect introduced by the first mirror, the first mirror being the near-pupil mirror; and v) the first lens is a near-pupil correction lens in the vicinity of the third pupil plane to correct the image defect introduced by the first mirror, the first mirror being the near-pupil mirror.