Appeal No. 2001-0107
Application No. 09/143,505
beam. (Id. at 8, ll.9–18.) Other relevant features of the
invention are readily discerned from the claims.
The claims
The following claims are representative:
1. An annealing system for annealing a target
material with a radiation source, the annealing system
comprising:
a window for passing the radiation source
therethrough;
a process region aligned with the window and
disposed in a path of the radiation source to receive
the radiation source, the process region containing the
target material being annealed; and
a buffer layer aligned with the window and the
process chamber and formed in the path of the radiation
source, wherein the annealing produces a byproduct
containing contaminants, and the buffer layer formed
between the window and the process region substantially
blocks the byproduct from reaching the window.
7. An annealing system of claim 1, wherein the buffer
layer is made of quartz.
8. An annealing system of claim 1, wherein the buffer
layer is mounted on a support frame placed between the
window and the target material to block the byproduct
from reaching the window.
9. An annealing system of claim 1, wherein the buffer
layer has an anti-reflective layer.
34. The annealing system of claim 1, wherein the
byproduct includes vaporized contaminants and wherein
the buffer means substantially prevents the vaporized
contaminants from being deposited on the window.
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