Peter Euteneuer

Ultra High Performance Microscope Objectives: The State of the Art in Design, Manufacturing and Testing

During the last years, new microscope applications require an increased resolution which enforces the development of new state of the art high NA immersion objectives. With the introduction of the 4Pi confocal fluorescence microscope, the increase of the numerical aperture from NA=1.4 to NA=1.46 makes sense, although the gain of lateral resolution is quite small. On the other hand, for inspection and metrology in the semiconductor industry the continuously decreasing structures need the highest possible resolution, which can be achieved with high NA water immersion objectives working in the DUV wavelength range. Building this kind of objectives requires special measuring and testing technologies and a manufacturing precision which has never been realized before in series production.