All The Claims

1.-11. (canceled)
12. A computation apparatus comprising:
a programmable logic controller implemented in the computation apparatus;
a memory integrated in the programmable logic controller, a component of the programmable logic controller having access to the memory;
a system subordinate to the programmable logic controller with respect to an operation to access the memory; and
a proxy device implemented in the computation apparatus and configured to coordinate access to the memory of the programmable logic controller by the subordinate system such that simultaneous access by the component of the programmable logic controller has priority over access by the subordinate system;
wherein the proxy device ensures that the programmable logic controller reliably receives access to the memory within a predefined period \u0394.
13. The computation apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the subordinate system includes a virtual machine.
14. The computation apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein at least one of a control and monitoring unit, a simulation unit and a tool management unit is implemented by the virtual machine.
15. The computation apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the proxy device forms part of the programmable logic controller.
16. The computation apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the proxy device ensures that access by the subordinate system to the memory is completely terminated if an access request from the programmable logic controller exists, and complete access by the programmable logic controller is still ensured within the predefined period \u0394 from the access request.
17. The computation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in an event of an access request from the programmable logic controller, the proxy device ensures that access by the subordinate system is revoked if its completion would mean it would not be possible for the programmable logic controller to gain access within the predefined period \u0394.
18. A method for operating a computation apparatus, comprising:
coordinating access by a subordinate system to a memory of a programmable logic controller such that simultaneous access by a component of the programmable logic controller has priority over access by the subordinate system; and
providing the programmable logic controller with reliable access to the memory within a predefined period \u0394.
19. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein access by the subordinate system to the memory is completely terminated if an access request by the programmable logic controller exists and complete access by the programmable logic controller is still ensured within the predefined period \u0394 from the access request.
20. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein, in an event of an access request by the programmable logic controller, access by the subordinate system is revoked if its completion would mean it would not be possible for the programmable logic controller to gain access within the predefined period \u0394.
21. The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein, in an event of the access request by the programmable logic controller, access by the subordinate system is revoked if its completion would mean it would not be possible for the programmable logic controller to gain access within the predefined period \u0394.

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

What is claimed is:

1. An optical instrument comprising:
a gas replacement apparatus which connects at least one of a plurality of spaces which are formed in an optical path of an energy beam, and replaces the gas in the spaces with a predetermined gas, along the traveling direction of the energy beam.
2. An optical instrument according to claim 1, comprising
a light source which emits said energy beam, and
a control unit which connects said light source and said gas replacement apparatus to control said light source and said gas replacement apparatus, so that while said energy beam is emitted towards the space on said light source side, among the plurality of spaces, the gas in said plurality of spaces is replaced with the predetermined gas from the space on said light source side, sequentially along the traveling direction of said energy beam.
3. An optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein said gas replacement apparatus comprises a gas supply device which connects said plurality of spaces and supplies said predetermined gas to said plurality of spaces, respectively, and a gas exhaust device which connects said plurality of spaces and exhausts the gas in said spaces, respectively, from said plurality of spaces.
4. An optical instrument according to claim 3, wherein said predetermined gas supplied from said gas supply device contains ozone or substances which absorb said energy beam and generate ozone.
5. An optical instrument according to claim 3, wherein said gas supply device comprises a stirring device which stirs the gas in said plurality of spaces.
6. An optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein said gas replacement apparatus replaces the gas in one of said plurality of spaces with said predetermined gas, sequentially along the traveling direction of the energy beam.
7. An optical instrument according to claim 6, wherein said gas replacement apparatus has a supply port which supplies said predetermined gas to said space and an exhaust port which exhausts said gas in said space, and said supply port and exhaust port are arranged in said space, with their height changed from each other, so that the gas in said space is replaced due to a difference of specific gravity between said predetermined gas supplied to said space and the gas in said space.
8. An optical instrument according to claim 3, wherein said gas replacement apparatus has a supply port which supplies said predetermined gas to each of said spaces and an exhaust port which exhausts said gas in each of said spaces, and said supply port and exhaust port are arranged in each of said spaces, with their height changed from each other, so that the gas in each of said spaces is replaced due to a difference of specific gravity between said predetermined gas supplied to said space and the gas in said space.
9. An optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein said control unit has at least one of a first measuring device in connection with said space and measures a concentration of impurities in the gas in said space, and a second measuring device in connection with said space and measures optical information of said energy beam having passed through said plurality of spaces, and the gas in said plurality of spaces is sequentially replaced, based on the measurement results of the first and second measuring devices.
10. An exposure apparatus comprising:
an illumination optical system which are formed in an optical path of an energy beam and illuminates a mask having a pattern formed thereon with the energy beam,
a projection optical system which are formed in an optical path of the energy beam and transfers the pattern on said mask onto a substrate, and
a gas replacement apparatus which connects at least one of a plurality of spaces which are formed in at least one of said illumination optical system and illumination optical system, and replaces the gas in the spaces with a predetermined gas, along the traveling direction of the energy beam.
11. An exposure method according to claim 10, wherein said replacement apparatus selectively replaces the gas in said plurality of spaces with a predetermined gas, sequentially along the traveling direction of the energy beam.
12. An exposure method according to claim 10, wherein said replacement apparatus selectively replaces the gas in at least one of said plurality of spaces with a predetermined gas, sequentially along the traveling direction of the energy beam.
13. An exposure apparatus according to claim 10, comprising:
a light source which emits said energy beam, and
a control unit which connects said light source and said gas replacement apparatus to control said light source and said gas replacement apparatus, so that while said energy beam is emitted towards the space on said light source side, among the plurality of spaces in said illumination optical system, the gas in said plurality of spaces is replaced with the predetermined gas from the space on said light source side, sequentially along the traveling direction of said energy beam.
14. An exposure apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the energy beam which illuminates said mask differs from the energy beam which is emitted towards said spaces when the replacement of the gas in said spaces with said predetermined gas.
15. An exposure apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the energy beam which is emitted towards said spaces having wavelength longer than that of the energy beam which illuminates said mask.
16. An exposure apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the energy beam which is emitted towards said spaces is an ArF excimer laser beam, and the energy beam which illuminates said mask is an F2 laser beam.
17. An exposure apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the energy beam which is emitted towards said spaces and the energy beam which illuminates said mask are emitted from the same light source.
18. An exposure apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the energy beam which is emitted towards said spaces illuminates at least one of optical members which form said illumination optical system or said projection optical system, to thereby optically clean said optical member.
19. An exposure apparatus comprising:
optical member which arranged in an optical path of light having a first wavelength beam and illuminates said light having the first wavelength onto a substrate through a mask having a pattern formed thereon,
an optical cleaning mechanism in connection with said optical member and illuminates light having a second wavelength longer than said light having the first wavelength, onto said optical member.
20. An exposure apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said optical cleaning mechanism having a gas replacing mechanism which replaces the gas which is filled in a laser resonator for generating said light having the first wavelength to the gas for generating said light having the second wavelength.
21. An exposure apparatus according to claim 20, comprising a F2 laser beam source for generating F2 laser beam as said light having the first wavelength, and an ArF excimer laser beam source for generating an ArF excimer laser beam as said light having the second wavelength.
22. An exposure method comprising steps for
replacing the gas in a first space along a traveling direction of an energy beam, of a plurality of spaces which are formed in an optical path of the energy beam, with a predetermined gas,
optically cleaning optical members in the first space by the energy beam while replacing the gas in the first space with the predetermined gas,
replacing the gas in a second space of said plurality of spaces which is formed adjacent to the first space along a traveling direction of an energy beam, with a predetermined gas, after the optical cleaning of the optical members, and
optically cleaning optical members in the second space by the energy beam while replacing the gas in the second space with the predetermined gas.
23. An exposure method according to claim 22, wherein said a plurality of spaces are formed at least in an illumination optical system which illuminates a mask having a pattern formed thereon with the energy beam, or a projection optical system which transfers the pattern onto a substrate.
24. An exposure method according to claim 23, wherein said illumination optical system and projection optical system have a plurality of optical members, and said spaces are formed between said plurality of optical members.
25. An exposure method according to claim 24, wherein the gas in one of said spaces which are formed between said optical members are replaced with the predetermined gas, sequentially along the traveling direction of the energy beam.
26. An exposure method according to claim 23, wherein the energy beam which illuminates a mask having a pattern formed thereon has different wavelength of the energy beam for optical cleaning of the optical members.
27. An exposure method comprising steps for
irradiating light having a first wavelength onto a mask, and transferring a pattern on the mask onto a substrate under this light having the first wavelength, wherein before said transfer, an optical member arranged in the optical path of said light having the first wavelength is irradiated with light having a second wavelength longer than said light having the first wavelength, to thereby optically clean said optical member.
28. An exposure method according to claim 27, wherein a gas filled in a laser resonator generating said light having the first wavelength, is replaced by a gas generating said light having the second wavelength, to thereby generate said light having the second wavelength in said laser resonator.
29. An exposure method according to claim 27, wherein said light having the first wavelength is an F2 laser beam, and said light having the second wavelength is an ArF excimer laser beam.
30. An exposure method according to claim 27, wherein said light having the first wavelength and said light having the second wavelength are generated from a laser beam source different from each other.
31. A manufacturing method for devices manufactured through a transfer step for transferring a pattern of a mask onto a substrate under light having a first wavelength, comprising a step, prior to said transfer step, for irradiating light having a second wavelength longer than said light having the first wavelength onto an optical member arranged in the optical path of said light having the first wavelength, to thereby optically clean said optical member.
32. A manufacturing method for devices according to claim 14, wherein at the time of said optical cleaning step, the gas in a laser resonator generating said light having the first wavelength is replaced by a gas generating said light having the second wavelength, and after having completed optical cleaning of said optical member, the gas in said laser resonator is changed from the gas generating said light having the second wavelength to the gas generating said light having the first wavelength.
33. A cleaning method in which light having a second wavelength longer than light having a first wavelength is irradiated onto an optical member arranged in an optical path of the light having the first wavelength, in an exposure apparatus for transferring a pattern of a mask onto a substrate under said light having the first wavelength, to thereby optically clean the optical member.
34. An gas replacement method for an optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined energy beam is emitted toward the space on said light source side among said plurality of spaces, and said plurality of spaces are subjected to gas replacement from the space on the light source side, sequentially along the traveling direction of said energy beam.

1. A redundancy control circuit comprising:
an address fuse circuit including a plurality of first fuses,
wherein each of the first fuses is configured to be cut based on a result of comparing a number of bits of a defective input address having a first logic level with a number of bits of the defective input address having a second logic level, and
wherein the address fuse circuit is configured to generate a first address using the first fuses based on a cutting operation that depends on the result of comparing; and

a first circuit configured to output either the first address or a second address that is an inverted address of the first address as a repair address, wherein a logic level of each of the bits of the repair address is the same as that of the defective input address.
2. The redundancy control circuit of claim 1, wherein the address fuse circuit is further configured to:
cut fuses corresponding to bits having the first logic level when a majority of bits in the defective input address have the second logic level, or
cut fuses corresponding to bits having the second logic level when a majority of bits in the defective input address have the first logic level.
3. The redundancy control circuit of claim 2, further comprising:
a master fuse circuit configured to determine whether to output the first address or the second address as the repair address corresponding to the defective input address.
4. The redundancy control circuit of claim 3, wherein the master fuse circuit is configured to generate a first master fuse signal for outputting the first address and a second master fuse signal for outputting the second address.
5. The redundancy control circuit of claim 4, wherein the first and second master fuse signals and the first address are generated by using a power-up signal.
6. The redundancy control circuit of claim 4, wherein the first circuit includes:
a first transmission gate configured to output the first address as the repair address based on the first master fuse signal;
an inverter configured to invert the first address to provide the second address; and
a second transmission gate configured to output the second address as the repair address based on the second master fuse signal.
7. The redundancy control circuit of claim 3,
wherein the master fuse circuit includes a plurality of second fuses that store information about whether a normal cutting operation or a reverse cutting operation has been performed, the master fuse circuit being configured to detect program states of the second fuses to generate the first and second master fuse signals.
8. The redundancy control circuit of claim 1, further comprising:
a redundancy control signal generating unit that includes:
an address comparison block configured to compare the repair address with the defective input address; and
a redundancy enable signal generating circuit configured to perform logical operations based on the comparison result to generate a redundancy enable signal.
9. A semiconductor memory device comprising:
the redundancy control circuit of claim 8;
a first memory cell;
a second memory cell configured to replace the first memory cell when the first memory cell is defective; and
an address decoder configured to perform a decoding operation based on an input address and the redundancy enable signal to select the first memory cell or the second memory cell.
10. A redundancy control circuit comprising:
an address fuse circuit including a plurality of first fuses,
wherein each of the first fuses is configured to be cut based a result of comparing a number of bits of a defective input address having a logic level of 0 with a number of bits of the defective input address having a logic level of 1, and
wherein the address fuse circuit is configured to generate a first address using the first fuses based on a normal cutting operation when the number of bits of the defective input address having a logic level of 0 is greater than the number of bits of the defective input address having a logic level of 1, or to generate a second address using the first fuses based on a reverse cutting operation when the number of bits of the defective input address having a logic level of 1 is greater than the number of bits of the defective input address having a logic level of 0; and

a first circuit configured to output either the first address or the second address as a repair address, wherein a logic level of each of bits of the repair address is the same as that of the defective input address.
11. The redundancy control circuit of claim 10, wherein the normal cutting operation includes cutting fuses so that the output from the first fuses has the same logic level as the defective input address, and the reverse cutting operation includes cutting fuses so that the output from the first fuses has opposite logic levels from the defective input address.
12. The redundancy control circuit of claim 10, further comprising:
a master fuse circuit configured to determine whether to output the first address or the second address as the repair address corresponding to the defective input address.
13. The redundancy control circuit of claim 12, wherein the master fuse circuit is configured to generate a first master fuse signal for outputting the first address and a second master fuse signal for outputting the second address.
14. The redundancy control circuit of claim 13, wherein the first and second master fuse signals and the first address are generated by using a power-up signal.
15. The redundancy control circuit of claim 13, wherein the master fuse circuit includes a plurality of second fuses that store information about whether the normal cutting operation or the reverse cutting operation has been performed, the master fuse circuit being configured to detect program states of the second fuses to generate the first and second master fuse signals.
16. The redundancy control circuit of claim 10, further comprising:
a redundancy control signal generating unit that includes:
an address comparison block configured to compare the repair address with the defective input address; and
a redundancy enable signal generating circuit configured to perform logical operations based on the comparison result to generate a redundancy enable signal.
17. A semiconductor memory device comprising:
the redundancy control circuit of claim 16;
a first memory cell;
a second memory cell being configured to replace the first memory cell when the first memory cell is defective; and
an address decoder configured to perform a decoding operation based on an input address and the redundancy enable signal to select the first memory cell or the second memory cell.
18. A method manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method comprising:
determining one or more defective memory cells of the semiconductor device including a first memory cell having a particular address;
for the particular address, cutting a plurality of first fuses in a fuse unit, to create a first address that corresponds to the particular address,
wherein cutting the plurality of first fuses includes determining to cut one or more of the first fuses corresponding to bits having a first logic level when a majority of bits in the particular address have a second logic level, or determining to cut one or more of the first fuses corresponding to bits having the second logic level when a majority of bits in the particular address have the first logic level;

configuring the semiconductor device to determine whether to output the first address or a second address that is an inverted address of the first address as a repair address; and
configuring the semiconductor device to generate the repair address, wherein a logic level of each of bits of the repair address is the same as that of the defective input address.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first logic level is 0 and second logic level is 1.
20. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of configuring the semiconductor device to determine whether to output the first address or a second address includes cutting additional fuses that select whether to output the first address or the second address.

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 circuit breaker comprising:
a breaker enclosure containing internal components that include a trip unit;
a plurality of conductor connections for electrically coupling the trip unit to a plurality of power conductors;
a temperature sensor located to sense heat radiated by the conductor connections, the temperature sensor being positioned inside the enclosure and proximate to the plurality of conductor connections; and
a controller communicatively coupled to the temperature sensor, the controller being programmable to determine defective conditions of the conductor connection by distinguishing between a normal temperature increase due to higher load currents and an abnormal temperature increase characteristic of defective conductor connection.
2. The circuit breaker of claim 1, wherein the temperature sensor is selected from a group consisting of an analog temperature sensor and a digital temperature sensor.
3. The circuit breaker of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of conductor connections is selected from a group consisting of a screw-type lug, a compression lug, and a plug-in connection.
4. The circuit breaker of claim 1, further comprising another temperature sensor.
5. The circuit breaker of claim 1, wherein the controller is communicatively coupled to the temperature sensor via an analog-to-digital channel.
6. The circuit breaker of claim 1, further comprising a memory for storing temperature values, the memory being communicatively coupled to the controller.
7. The circuit breaker of claim 1, wherein the controller is further programmable to send at least one of a trip instruction to the trip unit and a warning message to an end user.
8. A method of providing a circuit breaker for sensing temperature at a conductor connection, the method comprising:
enclosing internal components of a circuit breaker with a protective breaker enclosure, the internal components including a trip unit;
providing a plurality of conductor connections for electrically coupling the trip unit to a plurality of power conductors;
mounting the temperature sensor inside the protective breaker enclosure to sense heat radiated by the conductor connections; and
determining defective conditions by distinguishing between a normal temperature increase due to higher load currents and an abnormal temperature increase characteristic of a defective conductor connection.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising mounting a second temperature sensor inside the protective breaker enclosure to sense heat radiated by the conductor connections.
10. The method of claim 8, further comprising communicatively coupling the temperature sensor to a controller.
11. The method of claim 8, further comprising retrieving temperature values from a memory communicatively coupled to a controller.
12. The method of claim 8, further comprising sending at least one of a trip instruction to the trip unit and a warning message to an end user.
13. An electrical system comprising:
an electrical distribution equipment system;
a server mounted in the electrical distribution equipment system and communicatively coupled to a customer network, the server including a processor programmable to determine defective conditions of at least one breaker lug by distinguishing between a normal temperature increase due to higher load currents and an abnormal temperature increase characteristic of a defective breaker lug connection; and
a plurality of circuit breakers mounted in the electrical distribution equipment system and communicatively coupled to the server, each of the plurality of circuit breakers being electrically coupled to a plurality of power conductors, at least one circuit breaker of the plurality of circuit breakers including
the at least one breaker lug for electrically coupling the at least one circuit breaker to a corresponding power conductor of the plurality of power conductors, and
the at least one temperature sensor being positioned inside the at least one circuit breaker and proximate to the at least one breaker lug.
14. The electrical system of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of circuit breakers is communicatively coupled to an adjacent one of the plurality of circuit breakers.
15. The electrical system of claim 13, wherein the server includes a central communications processor, the processor including a memory for storing temperature values detected by the at least one temperature sensor.
16. The electrical system of claim 13, wherein the electrical distribution equipment system includes at least one of a switchgear, a switchboard, a panelboard, a control panel, a busway, and a motor control center.