GUIDE TO LAMBDA PHYSIK 193 EXIMER

LASER

Outline

Introduction

Operation
2.1 Turn on laser
2.2 Setup and Fire
2.3 Measure intensity
2.4 Turn off laser

Maintenance
3.1 Gas refill
3.2 Replacement of cylinders

Trouble Shooting

Contact

Ver 1.0
Call Ryan Mesch at 513-305.8444 if you have any questions.

Introduction
The Lambda Physik Laskertechnik has often been described as a
dinosaur and worthy of being in the Smithsonian by Dr. Willson. Its
one of the earliest 193 research lasers and is a very temperamental
beast.
1. Getting Start
1.1 Turn on laser
a) No gas cylinders need to be open in order to operate the laser
unless a refill is necessary (usually after 3-4 days of resting.)
b) Open the main valve on the water line.
c) Open the TOP red valve.
d) Switch on the alarm light for New yellow lab.
e) Turn the main switch clockwise to ON (back of laser)
f) Push ac ON green button (on back of laser)
g) Open LAMBDA software (old DOS application)
a) Upon normal startup, a system check will show a missing *****,
hit G to go on. Its all normal.
1.2 Setup and Fire
a) Press O for other.
b) Press to find Burst Fire
c) Exit in and out of Burst Fire as little as possible, it causes the laser
distress. Gotta be easy on our baby.
d) The 193 only has a physical shutter, flip it open
e) Look around and make sure that everybody has protection goggle
on.
f) Press T to trigger the laser on your sample.
1.3 Measure intensity
a) Plug the smaller photo sensor (J-10MB-LE) onto the photometer
(Coherent Field MAX II).
b) Plug the power cord onto the photometer.
c) Long press the illumination button to turn on the meter.
d) Open the cap on the photo sensor.
e) Place the sensor in the center of the laser beam. (Do NOT fire the

laser right now)

f) Set the meter to measure 193 nm by pressing set up then
g) Fire the laser.
h) Push and to adjust the maximal scale of the meter.
(Usually 300 mJ and keep in mind that trigger threshold is 8% of
the maximal scale)
i) Push Stat button to switch between statistics mode and real time
mode. (Statistics mode collects the energies of 30 pulses and
calculates the MAX, MIN, MEAN and STDV)
j) Push Zero to redo the statistics again.
k) Write down the average energy and make sure that the standard
deviation is less than 5%.
l) Calculate the real intensity on your sample. (usually thin films on
wafers)

Intensity

4 Emean L H 0

D 2
L

1.4 Turn Off Laser

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

Close both the mechanical shutter.

Exit LAMBDA software.
Press red ac OFF button on back of laser.
Turn main switch counter clockwise to OFF position
Close the valve on the cooling water line.

2. Maintenance
2.1 Gas refill

As the laser runs for long time, the composition of the gases in the
chamber deviates from the ideal values, which lowers the laser
performance. Therefore, we have to refill the gas in the chamber in
the laser. During the refilling process, the machine first pumps down
to exhaust all the old gas to the fume hood and then receives the
gases from the cylinders.

In gas room:
a) Open the main valve on the Helium cylinder in the blue cabinet.
b) Open the main valve on the right ArF cylinder.
In New Yellow:
c) Make sure that the Helium is connected to the 193 laser. Check
the valves above the ArF laser machine.
d) From the main software menu press G for Gas.
e) Scroll down to find GAS REFILL.
f) Press Enter.
g) Wait until the screen returns back to the initial state.
In gas room:
h) Close all the mail valves that you just opened in the blue cabinet.

Trouble Shooting
a) Burst fire quitting:
Often times when doing >100 bursts, the laser will flake out and
turn off and you will get an error message that appears to be
impossible to get rid of. Hit C and it should cancel the message.
Under options search for Burst Count and reset it, this will allow
you to know how many bursts happen next time before you have an
error. Just go back to Burst Trigger and start again. Good luck.
b) Refer to Lambda Physik Manual and good luck!