Nikon Corporation

Nippon Kogaku K.k.

Akikazu Tanimoto

Naoyuki Kobayashi

Soichi Owa

Kenichi Shiraishi

Katsushi Nakano

Yasushi Mizuno

Saburo Kamiya

Kazunori Imamura

Toshio Matsuura

Seiro Murakami

Kiwao Nakazawa

Hideo Mizutani

Kyoichi Suwa

Shoji Ishizaka

Kazuaki Suzuki

Susumu Makinouchi

Makoto Uehara

Akira Miyaji

Junji Hazama

Kiyoshi Motegi

Hisao Izawa

Yukako Komaru

Takashi Mori

Hiroyuki Suzuki

Michael R Sogard

Kinya Kato

Kazuya Ota

Yuji Imai

Hideki Komatsuda

Hiroshi Shirasu

Bausan Yuan

Yutaka Ichihara

Tsuneyuki Hagiwara

Issei Tanaka

Yukio Kakizaki

Masahiko Okumura

Hidemi Kawai

Masaichi Murakami

Kiyoshi Uchikawa

Ikuo Hikima

Yosuke Shirata

Kiyoto Mashima

Keiichiro Sakato

Masato Go

Fuyuhiko Inoue

Hisakazu Kato

Nobutoshi Abe

Hisayuki Shimizu

Kiyoyuki Muramatsu

Manabu Hosoya

Shinji Miura

Yuichi Aoki

Joji Iwamoto

Kazuya Ohta

Takaharu Miura

Masamitsu Yanagihara

Yutaka Endo

Kenichi Kodama

Yoichi Hamashima

Yoshihisa Fujiwara

Takeshi Asami

A liquid immersion exposure method exposes a substrate with exposure light through liquid, and uses a projection system, a stage system having a holder that holds the substrate, a supply port via which the liquid is supplied arranged such that an upper surface of the substrate faces the supply port and that is spaced a first distance from an optical axis of the projection system, and a recovery port via which the liquid is collected arranged such that the upper surface of the substrate faces the recovery port, which is spaced a second distance greater than the first distance from the optical axis of the projection system, and that encircles the supply port. In the method, the substrate held on the holder is positioned based on a detection result of an alignment system that detects an alignment mark of the substrate not through the liquid.

Exposure apparatus and method for producing device

A liquid immersion exposure apparatus comprising: a projection system, a stage system having a holder that holds a substrate, a supply port that is arranged such that an upper surface of the substrate faces the supply port, and a recovery port that is arranged to surround the supply port and collects an immersion liquid from the upper surface of the substrate such that only a portion of the upper surface of the substrate is covered with the immersion liquid. The apparatus also comprises an alignment system which detects an alignment mark of the substrate not through the immersion liquid. The substrate held on the holder is positioned based on a detection result of the alignment system to align the substrate with an exposure light projected through the immersion liquid by the projection system.

An exposure apparatus includes an optical element via which a patterned beam is projected onto a substrate through exposure liquid filled in a space between the optical element and the substrate. The apparatus also includes a member having a flow passage in which exposure liquid flows, the flow passage being in fluidic communication with the space. The apparatus also includes a cleaning system which cleans the member.

A cleaning of a liquid immersion exposure apparatus is performed at a different time than an exposure operation. A stage is placed under a liquid supply inlet during a cleaning operation. The cleaning operation is performed at the different time than the exposure operation in which an immersion liquid is supplied onto a substrate held on a holder of the stage. The immersion liquid is supplied from a liquid supply inlet during the cleaning operation. The immersion liquid is supplied to a portion of the stage different from a portion at which the substrate is held by the holder of the stage.

There is provided an exposure apparatus capable of forming a desirable device pattern by removing unnecessary liquid when performing exposure by projecting a pattern onto the substrate via a projection optical system and the liquid. The exposure device projects an image of the pattern onto the substrate P via the projection optical system and the liquid so as to expose the substrate P. The exposure device includes a liquid removing mechanismwhich removes the liquid remaining on a partarranged in the vicinity of the image plane of the projection optical system.

A lithographic apparatus includes a substrate table which holds a substrate, a projection system which projects a patterned beam of radiation onto the substrate, the projection system having a final optical element adjacent the substrate, a liquid supply system which provides a liquid to a space between the projection system and the substrate table, and a cleaning system which cleans the substrate table.

An exposure apparatus includes an optical element via which a patterned beam is projected onto a substrate through exposure liquid filled in a space between the optical element and the substrate. The apparatus also includes a member having a surface and movable to a position at which the surface of the member faces the optical element. The apparatus also includes a cleaning system which cleans the surface of the member.

A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes an optical element via which a patterned beam is projected onto a substrate in an exposure operation, a liquid supply system having a supply port from which exposure liquid is supplied, and a member which has a surface and which is different from the substrate. In the exposure operation, the liquid supply system supplies the exposure liquid from the supply port to a space between the optical element and the substrate. In a cleaning operation, the member is moved to a position at which the surface of the member faces the optical element, and the liquid supply system supplies the exposure liquid from the supply port to a space between the optical element and the surface of the member.

Process tools and methods are disclosed that involve interferometric and other measurements of movements and positions relative to a process position, such as movements and positions of a stage relative to a lithographic optical system. An exemplary apparatus includes a stage that places a workpiece relative to the tool, and that is movable in at least one direction relative to the tool. At least one first interferometer system is situated relative to the stage to determine stage position in a movement direction relative to the process position. A movement-measuring device determines displacement of the tool from the process position. Using data from the interferometer system and movement-measuring device a processor determines a position of the stage relative to the tool. The processor also corrects the determined position for displacement of the tool.

Interferometric position-measuring devices and methods

A mask stage RSand a substrate stage WSare synchronously moved, and a mask stage RSand a substrate stage RSare synchronously moved, in a state in which a mask on the mask stage RSand a mask on the mask stage RSare irradiated with illumination light beams from illumination optical systems IOP, IOPrespectively. The reaction force on a base board due to the movement of the stages can be canceled to suppress the vibration of an exposure apparatus by moving the mask stage RSand the mask stage RSin mutually opposite directions. The throughput can be improved by performing alignment operation on substrate stages WS, WSconcurrently with the exposure operation.

Exposure apparatus and methods utilizing plural mask and object stages movable in opposite directions, and methods of producing devices using the same

A method for performing optical adjustments of an exposure apparatus is based on an exposure apparatus having a light source for generating illumination light for exposure, and illumination optics for irradiating a mask with the illumination light generated from the exposure light source so as to imprint a mask pattern on a substrate base. The apparatus uses a wide bandwidth light source for the exposure light source that produces exposure light and non-exposure light having wavelengths different from those in the exposure light, and optical adjustments for optical components in at least a portion of the illumination optics are performed by using non-exposure light

Apparatus and method for pattern exposure and method for adjusting the apparatus

A scanning exposure apparatus and method uses an optical member to change an intensity distribution of exposure light in an illumination region.

Light exposure apparatus

A specified gas is supplied into a chamber where masks or reticles to be exposed are arranged. Part of the air-gas mixture within the chamber is exhausted into the atmosphere. After that, when the gas within the chamber reaches a specified concentration, part of the air-gas mixture within the chamber is circulated and an appropriate concentration of gas is supplied to the chamber.

Environmental-control method and apparatus for an exposure system

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Akikazu Tanimoto