The present invention provides a modular high repetition rate ultraviolet
gas discharge laser light source with a beam delivery to a production
line machine. The system includes an enclosed and purged beam path with
beam pointing control for delivery the laser beam to a desired location
such as the entrance port of the production line machine. Preferred
embodiments include equipment for beam attenuation, equipment for
automatic feedback beam alignment and equipment for accurate optics
module positioning at installation and during maintenance. In preferred
embodiments, the production line machine is a lithography machine and two
separate discharge chambers are provided, one of which is a part of a
master oscillator producing a very narrow band seed beam which is
amplified in the second discharge chamber. This MOPA system is capable of
output pulse energies approximately double the comparable single chamber
laser system with greatly improved beam quality. A pulse stretcher more
than doubles the output pulse length resulting in a reduction in pulse
power (mJ/ns) as compared to prior art laser systems. This preferred
embodiment is capable of providing illumination at a lithography system
wafer plane which is approximately constant throughout the operating life
of the lithography system, despite substantial degradation of optical
components.