Arrangement for RF power delivery to a gas discharge laser with cascaded transmission line sections

1. Apparatus, comprising:

a gas discharge laser having an operating impedance in an operating condition at an operating resonant frequency when a gas discharge in the laser is lit and a non-operating resonant frequency when the gas discharge is not lit;

at least one source of radio frequency (RF) power for powering the gas discharge, the RF power source having a source impedance, the source impedance being greater than the operating impedance of the laser;

at least one plurality of transmission line sections connected in series in an electrically conductive path between the RF power source and the laser, at least first and second ones of the transmission line sections having respectively first and second different characteristic impedances;

and wherein the length and characteristic impedance of each of the transmission line sections is selected to maximize RF power transmission from the RF power source to the gas discharge laser at both the non-operating frequency and the operating frequency.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of transmission line sections have only the first and second transmission line sections with the first transmission line section connected to the RF power source and the second transmission line section connected to the laser.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the first and second transmission line sections have electrical lengths of about three-quarters of a wavelength and one-quarter of a wavelength, respectively, at a wavelength corresponding to a frequency between the operating resonant frequency of the laser and the non-operating resonant frequency of the laser, and wherein the first impedance is lower than the source impedance and higher than the second impedance and the second impedance is higher than the operating impedance of the laser.

4. Apparatus, comprising:

a gas discharge laser having an operating impedance in an operating condition at an operating resonant frequency when a gas discharge in the laser is lit;

a plurality M of sources of radio frequency (RF) power for powering the gas discharge, each of the RF power sources having a source impedance higher than the operating impedance of the laser;

a plurality M of first transmission line sections each thereof having a first impedance, each thereof having first and second opposite ends and each thereof connected the first end thereof to a corresponding one of the M RF power sources;

a plurality N of second transmission line sections where M/N is equal to P and P is an integer sub-multiple of M/N, the second transmission line sections having a second impedance different from the first impedance with each thereof having first and second opposite ends, with the first end of each one of the N second transmission line sections being connected to the second end of P of the first transmission line sections such that in a conductive path between any one of the RF power sources and the laser there is one of the first transmission line sections and one of the second transmission line sections in series; and

wherein the lengths and impedances of the transmission line sections are selected to transform the source impedances to a third impedance different from the first and second impedances for optimizing transmission of RF power from the RF sources to the laser.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein M is 4 and N is 2.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the source impedances are about equal, the second impedances of the second transmission line sections are about equal, the source impedance is greater than the first impedance, the first impedance is greater than the second impedance, and the second impedance is greater than the third impedance.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the second end of each of the second transmission line sections is connected directly to the laser.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the third impedance is about equal to the operating impedance of the laser.

9. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein, the laser has a non-operating resonant frequency in a condition where the gas discharge is not lit, the non-operating resonant frequency being lower than the operating resonant frequency, and wherein each of the first and second transmission line sections has an electrical length of about one-quarter wavelength corresponding to a frequency between the operating and non-operating resonant frequencies of the laser.