Patent ID: 7515250

Claim:
A projection lithography tool comprising: an effective light source comprising a light source; a condensing lens configured to accept light from the light source; and an illumination modifying optic between the light source and the condensing lens, wherein the illumination modifying optic is located at a conjugate aperture stop of an image plane of a projection lens system, the illumination modifying optic is configured such that light from the light source that passes through the illumination modifying optic and condensing lens forms a plurality of light ray bundles with corresponding chief rays; a reticle upon which the light ray bundles are projected, the reticle comprising: an array of field points, wherein each field point comprises an array of fiducials; and an array of optical elements, wherein an optical element is associated with each of the field points and whose chief rays pass though unique positions in an aperture stop; and an upper lens group wherein the conjugate aperture stop is imaged by the combination of the condenser lens and the upper lens group onto the aperture stop, the upper lens group further including optics to image the fiducials onto a sensing plane.