Patent ID: 7106415

Claim:
A projection lithography system, for curved surface lithography, having a number of required transmissive elements in a light path controlled by projection optics and illumination optics, in which the illumination optics has means to form an illumination compensator having the zero-power aggregate optical effect of two closely-spaced identical meniscus elements back-to-back, and the system is designed to provide patterning illumination to a curved substrate ( 3 ) in accordance with a curved mask ( 2 ), whose size and curvature are related to the size and curvature of the curved substrate ( 3 ); characterized by; a) radiation means ( 7 ); b) projection means ( 5 ); c) scanning means ( 8 ), to present, for scanning, both such curved mask ( 2 ) and such curved substrate ( 3 ) for imaging mask to substrate via said projection means ( 5 ), with means to move said projection means ( 5 ); whereby a scanning polygon of the curved mask pattern is imaged onto the curved substrate surface, and the substrate surface remains within the depth-of-focus of said projection means and said scanning polygon remains at substantially the same size: and d) means ( 1 ) in the illumination light path supporting such mask means (2is arranged to transmit the scanning beam undistorted inits shape and direction of propagation.