Author: claimsbot

1. An electrical connector assembly comprising:
a female connector connected with the mating connector and having:
a) a container base having a plurality of slot ways, a hole, two open slots, and a slot located between the two open slots;
b) a metal shield body located on an exterior of the container base and having a stopping wall located on a top of an interior of the slot;
c) a block located in the slot;
d) a power supply located in the hole;
e) a plurality of first container base connectors, each of the plurality of first container base connectors is located in one of the plurality of slot ways;
f) a plurality of second container base connectors connected to the block; and
g) two U-shaped pins connected to the power supply and transmitting power, each of the two U-shaped pins is inserted into one of the two open slots.
2. The according to claim 1, further comprising a round port located on one side of the container base.
3. The according to claim 1, wherein a first of the two U-shaped pins is a positive pole and a second of the two U-shaped pins is a negative pole.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A very narrow band two chamber high repetition rate F2 gas discharge laser system comprising:
A) a first laser unit comprising:
1) a first discharge chamber containing;
a) a first laser gas
b) a first pair of elongated spaced apart electrodes defining a first discharge region,

2) a first fan producing sufficient gas movement of said first laser gas in said first discharge region to clear from said first discharge region, following each gas discharge, substantially all discharge produced ions prior to a next gas discharge when operating at a repetition rate in the range of 4,000 gas discharges per second or greater,
3) a first heat exchanger system removing heat energy from said first laser gas,
B) a line selection unit minimizing energy outside of a single selected line spectrum,
C) a second laser unit comprising:
1) a second discharge chamber containing:
a) a second laser gas,
b) a second pair of elongated spaced apart electrodes defining a second discharge region

2) a second fan for producing sufficient gas movement of said second laser gas in said second discharge region to clear from said second discharge region, following each gas discharge, substantially all discharge produced ions prior to a next gas discharge when operating at a repetition rate in the range of 4,000 gas discharges per second or greater,
3) a second heat exchanger system removing heat energy from said second laser gas,
D) a pulse power system configured to provide electrical pulses to said first pair of electrodes and to said second pair of electrodes sufficient to produce laser output pulses at rates of about 4,000 laser output pulses per second with precisely controlled laser output pulse energies in excess of about 5 mJ,
E) a laser beam measurement and control system for measuring the laser output pulse energy of laser output pulses produced by said two chamber laser system and controlling said laser output pulses in a feedback control arrangement, and wherein output laser beams from said first laser unit are utilized as a seed beam for seeding said second laser unit.
2. A laser system as in claim 1 wherein said first laser unit is configured as a master oscillator and said second laser unit is configured as a power amplifier.
3. A laser system as in claim 2 wherein said first laser gas comprises fluorine and neon.
4. A laser system as in claim 3 wherein said first and second laser gas comprises fluorine and a buffer gas chosen from a group consisting of neon, helium or a mixture of neon and helium.
5. A laser system as in claim 3 wherein said power amplifier provides a single beam pass through the second discharge region.
6. A laser system as in claim 2 wherein said power amplifier is provides a plurality of passes through the second discharge region.
7. A laser system as in claim 2 wherein said first laser gas comprises fluorine and helium.
8. A laser as in claim 2 wherein said master oscillator comprises optical components providing a resonant path making two passes through said first discharge region.
9. A laser as in claim 2 wherein said master oscillator comprises optical components providing a resonant path making two passes through said first discharge region and wherein said power amplifier comprises optical components providing a plurality of beam passes through the second discharge region.
10. A laser as in claim 2 and wherein first and second said chambers each comprises a vane structure downstream of said discharge region normalizing gas velocity downstream of said discharge region.
11. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said first fan and said second fan each are tangential fans and each comprises a shaft driven by two brushless DC motors.
12. A laser as in claim 11 wherein said motors are water cooled motors.
13. A laser as in claim 11 wherein each of said motors comprise a stator and each of said motors comprise a magnetic rotor contained in a pressure cup separating a said stator from said laser gas.
14. A laser as in claim 11 wherein said motors are sensorless motors and further comprising a master motor controller for controlling one of said motors and a slave motor controller for controlling the other motor.
15. A laser as in claim 11 wherein each of said tangential fans comprise blades which are angled with respect to said shaft.
16. A laser as in claim 2 and further comprising a discharge timing controller triggering discharges in said power amplifier to occur between 20 and 60 ns after discharges in said master oscillator.
17. A laser as in claim 2 and further comprising a discharge controller programmed to cause in some circumstances discharges so timed to avoid any significant output pulse energy.
18. A laser as in claim 17 wherein said controller in said some circumstances is programmed to cause discharge in said power amplifier at least 20 ns prior to discharge in said master oscillator.
19. A laser system as in claim 1 and further comprising an optical table supporting resonant cavity optics of said first laser unit independent of said first discharge chamber.
20. A laser system as in claim 19 wherein said optical table is generally U-shaped and defines a U-cavity and wherein said first discharge chamber is mounted within the U-cavity.
21. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a vertically mounted optical table with said first and second discharge chambers mounted on said vertical optical table.
22. A laser system as in claim 1 wherein each of said first and second laser chambers define a gas flow path with a gradually increasing cross section downstream of said electrodes to permit recovery of a large percentage of static pressure drop occurring in the discharge regions.
23. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said first and second fans are each tangential fans each comprising a blade structure machined from a single piece of aluminum stock.
24. A laser as in claim 23 wherein said blade structure has an outside diameter of about five inches.
25. A laser as in claim 24 wherein said blade structure comprises blade elements having sharp leading edges.
26. A laser as in claim 1 wherein each heat exchanger system is water cooled.
27. A laser as in claim 26 wherein each heat exchanger system comprises at least four separate water cooled heat exchangers.
28. A laser as in claim 26 wherein each heat exchanger system comprises at least one heat exchanger having a tubular water flow passage wherein at least one turbulator is located in said path.
29. A laser as in claim 28 wherein each of said four heat exchangers comprise a tubular water flow passage containing a turbulator.
30. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said pulse power system comprise water cooled electrical components.
31. A laser as in claim 30 wherein at least one of said water cooled components is a component operated at high voltages in excess of 12,000 volts.
32. A laser as in claim 31 wherein said high voltage is isolated from ground using an inductor through which cooling water flows.
33. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said pulse power system comprises a first charging capacitor bank and a first pulse compression circuit providing electrical pulses to said first pair of electrodes and a second charging capacitor bank and a second pulse compression circuit providing electrical pulses to said second pair of electrodes and a resonant charging system charging in parallel said first and second charging capacitor banks to a precisely controlled voltage.
34. A laser as in claim 33 wherein said resonance charging system comprises a De-Qing circuit.
35. A laser as in claim 33 wherein said resonance charging system comprises a bleed circuit.
36. A laser as in claim 33 wherein said resonant charging system comprises a De-Qing circuit and a bleed circuit.
37. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said pulse power system comprises a charging system comprised of at least three power supplies arranged in parallel.
38. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said line selection unit is located downstream of said master oscillator.
39. A laser as in claim 38 wherein said line selection unit comprises a plurality of prisms.
40. A laser as in claim 39 wherein said plurality of prisms is five prisms.
41. A laser as in claim 39 wherein said plurality of prisms are arranged in a loop so as to cause laser beams from the first laser unit to make a 360\xb0 turn prior to entering the second laser unit.
42. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a visible light alignment laser.
43. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said line selection unit comprises a Lyot filter.
44. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said first discharge chamber and said second discharge chamber comprise chamber windows positioned so that the incident angles of laser beams on said windows are all greater than Brewster’s angle.
45. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a beam steering means for steering laser beams produced in said first laser unit.
46. A laser as in claim 45 wherein said steering means comprises a means for pivoting an optical element.
47. A laser as in claim 45 wherein said beam steering means comprises a means for adjusting the pressure in said line selection unit.
48. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said laser system comprises prism output coupler in part defining a resonant cavity for said first laser unit, said prism output coupler comprising two surfaces, a first surface oriented at a low loss angle for p-polarization and a second surface located orthogonal to laser beams from said first laser unit.
49. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising: A) a first temperature monitor for monitoring gas temperature in said first discharge chamber, B) a first gas temperature control system where gas temperature control system comprises a control algorithm for adjusting gas temperature to avoid adverse acoustic effects resulting from reflected acoustic waves.
50. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising: A) a second temperature monitor for monitoring gas temperature in said second discharge chamber, B) a second gas temperature control system where gas temperature control system comprises a control algorithm for adjusting gas temperature to avoid adverse acoustic effects resulting from reflected acoustic waves.
51. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a nitrogen filter.
52. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a nitrogen purge system comprising a purge module comprising flow monitors said laser also comprising purge exhaust tubes for transporting exhaust purge gas from said laser.
53. A laser system as in claim 52 wherein said first delay path comprises four focusing mirrors.
54. A laser system as in claim 53 and further comprising said second delay path created by a second beam splitter located in said first delay path.
55. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a shutter unit comprising an electrically operated shutter and a power meter which can be positioned in a laser output beam path with a command signal.
56. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a beam enclosure system comprising: A) at least one beam seal said beam seals comprising a metal bellows, and B) a purge means for purging said beam enclosure with a purge gas.
57. A laser as in claim 56 wherein said beam enclosure means comprise a flow directing means for producing purge flow transverse to laser beams produced in said second laser unit.
58. A laser as in claim 56 wherein said at least one beam seal permits easy replacement of said laser chamber.
59. A laser as in claim 56 wherein said at least one beam seal contains no elastomer, provides vibration isolation from said chamber, provides beam train isolation from atmospheric gases and permits unrestricted replacement of said laser chamber without disturbance of said line selection unit.
60. A laser as in claim 56 wherein said at least one beam seal is vacuum compatible.
61. A laser as in claim 60 wherein said at least one beam seal is a plurality of beam seals and said plurality of said seals are easy sealing bellows seals easily removed by hand.
62. A laser as in claim 1 wherein said measurement and control system comprises a primary beam splitter for splitting off a small percentage of the laser output beam from said second laser unit and an optical means for directing a portion of said small percentage to a pulse energy detector and an isolation means for isolating a volume bounded at least in part by said primary beam splitter and a window of said pulse energy detector from other portions of said measurement and control system to define an isolated region.
63. A laser system as in claim 1 wherein said system is operates either of a KrF laser system, un ArF laser system or an F2 laser system with minor modifications.
64. A laser system as in claim 1 wherein substantially all components are contained in a laser enclosure but said system comprises an ACDC module physically separate from the enclosure.
65. A laser as in claim 64 and further comprising a purge means for purging said isolated region with a purge gas.
66. A laser system as in claim 1 wherein said pulse power system comprises a master oscillator charging capacitor bank and a power amplifier charging capacitor bank and a resonant charger configured to charge both charging capacitor banks in parallel.
67. A laser as in claim 66 wherein said pulse power system comprises a power supply configured to furnish at least 2000V supply to said resonant charger.
68. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a gas control system controlling F2 concentrations in said first laser gas to control master oscillator beam parameters.
69. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a gas control system controlling laser gas pressure in said first laser gas to control master oscillator beam parameters.
70. A laser as in claim 1 and further comprising a pulse multiplier unit for increasing duration of the laser output pulses from the second laser unit.
71. A laser as in claim 70 wherein the pulse multiplier unit is arranged to receive said laser output pulse beam and to multiply the number of pulses per second by at least a factor of two so as to produce a single multiplied laser output pulse beam comprised of a larger number of laser output pulses with substantially reduced intensity values as compared with the laser output pulses, and pulse multiplier unit comprising: (1) a first beam splitter arranged to separate a portion of said laser output pulse beam, the separated portion defining a delayed portion, and the laser output pulse beam defining a beam size and angular spread at said first beam splitter; (2) a first delay path originating and terminating at said first beam splitter said first delay path comprising at least two focusing mirrors, said mirrors being arranged to focus said delayed portion at a focal point within said first delay path and to return said delayed portion to said first beam splitter with a beam size and angular spread equal to or approximately equal to the beam size and angular spread of the laser output pulse beam at said first beam splitter.
72. A laser system as in claim 71 wherein said at least two focusing mirrors are spherical mirrors.
73. A laser system as in claim 72 and further comprising a second delay path comprising at least two spherical mirrors.
74. A laser as in claim 71 wherein said first delay path comprises a second beam splitter and further comprising a second delay path comprising at least two focusing mirrors, said mirrors being arranged to focus said delayed portion at a focal point within said first delay path and to return said delayed portion to said first beam splitter with a beam size and angular spread equal to or approximately equal to the beam size and angular spread of the laser output pulse beam at said first beam splitter.
75. A laser as in claim 71 wherein said first beam splitter is configured to direct a laser beam in at least two directions utilizing the optical property of frustrated internal reflection.
76. A laser as in claim 71 wherein said first beam splitter is comprised of two transparent optical elements each element having a flat surface, said optical elements being positioned with said flat surfaces parallel to each other and separated by less than 200 nm.
77. A laser as in claim 71 wherein said first beam splitter is an uncoated optical element oriented at an angle with said laser output pulse beam so as to achieve a desired reflection-transmission ratio.

1. An extreme ultraviolet light source device comprising:
a chamber in which a gas flow from an upstream side of the chamber to a downstream side of the chamber and a droplet stream of a target material are provided, and where the droplet stream is irradiated by laser to produce plasma that generates an extreme ultraviolet light that is reflected and focused by a collector mirror in the chamber;
a droplet generator through which a supply of target material is changed into the droplet stream; and
a shroud positioned along the droplet stream, the shroud shielding at least a portion of the droplet stream from the gas flow,
wherein the shroud has an inner surface that includes non-flat flow guide features that guide target material that may accumulate on the shroud away from the collector mirror and the non-flat flow guide features on the inner surface of the shroud comprise a set of grooves, or ridges, or a braided structure, wherein at least some portions of the non-flat flow guide features lie above or below the inner surface of the shroud.
2. The device of claim 1, wherein the shroud is coupled to the droplet generator, and the inner surface of the shroud comprises a set of non-flat elongated flow guide features oriented either toward the droplet generator or in a gravity direction, whereby accumulations of target material move along the flow guide features toward the droplet generator or in the gravity direction.
3. The device of claim 2, wherein the non-flat flow guide features extend linearly or in a spiral configuration along a longitudinal direction of the shroud.
4. The device of claim 2, wherein the shroud is configured with a \u201cU\u201d-shaped cross-section and positioned in the chamber such that a closed side of the \u201cU\u201d shape is on the upstream side of the chamber where it shields the droplet stream from the gas flow and an open side of the \u201cU\u201d is opposite from the closed side.
5. The device of claim 4, wherein the shroud includes a first end coupled to the droplet generator and a second end opposite the first end, and the open side of the shroud either has the same size at both ends or has a different size at each end with a tapering down from the larger first end to the smaller second end.
6. The device of claim 5, further comprising a container coupled to the first end of the shroud for receiving accumulated target material coming along the non-flat flow guide features.
7. The device of claim 1, further comprising a droplet catcher positioned along the droplet stream and configured to gather the droplet stream of target material.
8. The device of claim 7, further comprising a second shroud coupled to the droplet catcher and positioned along the droplet stream,
wherein the second shroud has an inner surface that includes second-shroud flow guide features that comprise a set of elongated non-flat flow guide features oriented either toward the droplet catcher or in a gravity direction, whereby accumulations of target material move along the second-shroud flow guide features toward the droplet catcher or in the gravity direction.
9. The device of claim 8, further comprising a second container coupled to the second shroud for receiving accumulated target material coming along the non-flat second-shroud flow guide features.
10. An extreme ultraviolet light source device comprising:
a chamber having a collector mirror provided therein, the collector mirror receiving and reflecting an extreme ultraviolet light;
a droplet generator configured to provide the chamber with a droplet stream of target material;
a gas source configured to provide a gas flow across the droplet stream in a direction away from the collection mirror;
a laser system configured to produce a laser beam oriented to intersect droplets of target material to generate plasma and release extreme ultraviolet light; and
a first shroud coupled to the droplet generator, elongated along the direction of the droplet stream, and configured and oriented to shield a portion of the droplet stream,
wherein the first shroud has an inner surface that includes non-flat first-shroud flow guide features that guide target material that may accumulate on the first shroud toward the droplet generator;
a second shroud coupled to a droplet catcher,
wherein the second shroud has an inner surface that includes non-flat second-shroud flow guide features that guide target material that may accumulate on the second shroud toward the droplet catcher; and,
further comprising at least one of a piezoelectric transducer and a strain gauge coupled to at least one of the first and second shrouds.
11. The device of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first and second shrouds has a \u201cU\u201d-shaped cross-section with a closed side shielding the droplet stream from the gas flow and an open side opposite from the closed side, and the width of the open side tapers down from one end of the shroud to an opposite end of the shroud.
12. The device of claim 10, further comprising a heat insulator interposed between at least one of the first and second shrouds and at least one of the piezoelectric transducer and the strain gauge.
13. An extreme ultraviolet light (EUL) source apparatus comprising:
a plasma-generation chamber containing a collector mirror to reflect and focus EUL;
a source of a stream of droplets of a target material that traverses the chamber along a droplet path;
a source of a laser beam that traverses the chamber along a laser path that intersects the droplet path at an intersection location;
a source of a gas flow into, through and out of the chamber; and
at least a shroud that shields a portion of the stream of droplets from the gas flow and which includes surface features that inhibit accumulations of target material on shroud surfaces;
wherein the shroud includes surface features along one or both of its inner and outer surfaces that either absorb target material that may contact those surfaces andor that are configured to guide that target material away from the intersection location,
and also wherein the surface features of the shroud comprise grooves andor ridges that provide longitudinal channels along the surface(s) of the shroud.
14. An apparatus according to claim 13 wherein droplets along the droplet path are shielded from the gas flow both before and after the intersection location.
15. An apparatus according to claim 13 wherein the droplet path is shielded by the shroud from the gas flow along an upstream side relative to the gas flow direction, but is not shielded along a downstream side.
16. An apparatus according to claim 13 wherein the surface features extend linearly or in a spiral configuration along a longitudinal direction of the shroud along one or both of its inner and outer surfaces that either absorb target material that may contact those surfaces andor that are configured to guide that target material away from the intersection location.
17. An apparatus according to claim 13 wherein the apparatus comprises a first shroud coupled to the source of a stream of droplets of the target material and a second shroud coupled to a droplet catcher.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A recording medium conveyance apparatus for conveying a recording medium rolled around a roll pipe, the recording medium conveyance apparatus comprising:
a driving unit configured to drive the roll pipe;
a detection unit configured to detect a rotational operation of the roll pipe;
a conveyance unit configured to convey the recording medium and settable to fix the recording medium pulled out from the roll pipe by nipping the recording medium with at least two rollers;
a determination unit configured to determine that the recording medium is not fixed to the roll pipe when the detection unit detects more than a number of rotations, and to determine that the recording medium is fixed to the roll pipe when the detection unit does not detect more than said number of rotations, when the recording unit is fixed by the at least two rollers and the driving unit drives the roll pipe in a direction for rewinding the recording medium.
2. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the driving unit includes a clutch member for transmitting power to the roll pipe, and the clutch member transmits the power in a case where the roll pipe can be driven with a power equal to or less than a predefined amount of power and does not transmit the power in a case where the roll pipe cannot be driven with a power equal to or less than the predefined amount of power.
3. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the detection unit, in a case where the recording medium is fixedly held by the rollers, detects the rotational operation of the roll pipe when the driving unit reversely rotates the roll pipe to restore the recording medium.
4. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the detection unit detects the rotational operation of the roll pipe after a predefined period of time after the driving unit starts driving the roll pipe for rolling back the recording medium on the roll pipe.
5. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determination unit, when a number of rotations of the roll pipe is less than a predefined number of rotations in the rotational operation of the roll pipe detected by the detection unit, determines that the recording medium is fixed to the roll pipe.
6. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 4, further comprising:
an input unit configured to input the predefined period of time.
7. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the feeding unit, in a case where the determination unit determines that the recording medium is fixed to the roll pipe, causes a speed of restoring the recording medium by rotating the roll pipe by the driving unit to be greater than a speed of conveying the recording medium by rotating the rollers by the conveyance unit.
8. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conveyance unit, in a case where the determination unit determines that the recording medium is not fixed to the roll pipe, causes a speed of conveying the recording medium by rotating the rollers by the conveyance unit to be greater than a speed of restoring the recording medium by rotating the roll pipe by the driving unit.
9. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conveyance unit discharges the recording medium by rotating the rollers in a forward direction in response to a determination that the recording medium is not fixed to the roll pipe.
10. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:
an output unit configured to output a conveyance result of the recording medium as the conveyance unit rotates the rollers in a forward direction to discharge the recording medium.
11. An image forming apparatus including the recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 1 and an image forming unit configured to form images on the recording medium.
12. A recording medium conveyance method comprising:
driving a roll pipe having a recording medium rolled thereon;
detecting a rotational state of the roll pipe;
nipping the recording medium with at least two rollers to convey the recording medium pulled out from the roll pipe;
determining that the recording medium is not fixed to the roll pipe when more than a number of rotations is detected and determining that the recording medium is fixed to the roll pipe when more than said number of rotations is not detected while the recording medium is held in a fixed position by the at least two rollers and the roll pipe is driven in a direction for rewinding the recording medium on the roll pipe.
13. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium in which a program for causing a computer to execute the recording medium conveyance method as claimed in claim 12 is recorded.
14. The recording medium conveyance apparatus as claimed in claim 5, further comprising:
an input unit configured to input the predefined number of rotations.