Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Fumio Sakai

Hideki Matsumoto

Hideki Ina

Kazuhito Outsuka

Shigeki Ogawa

Akiyoshi Suzuki

Kazuhiro Takahashi

Masao Kosugi

Shigeyuki Uzawa

Makoto Mizuno

Junji Isohata

Yuichi Yamada

Hitoshi Nakano

Eiichi Murakami

Tetsuya Mori

Hideki Nogawa

Masao Totsuka

Shinji Utamura

Yasuo Hasegawa

Kohei Wakabayashi

An imprint apparatus for transferring a pattern to an imprint material using a mold includes a substrate holding mechanism and a control unit. The substrate holding mechanism is configured to be divided into a plurality of areas, capable of varying an attracting force for attracting the substrate in each of the areas and to hold the substrate. The control unit is configured to, when a plurality of shots is formed on the substrate, control an imprint operation of transferring the pattern to the plurality of shots which are not adjacent to one another, makes the attracting force in the area of the substrate holding mechanism corresponding to the shot to which the pattern is transferred among the plurality of areas smaller than the attracting force at the time of the imprint operation and suck the substrate.

Imprint apparatus, imprint method, and method for producing device

A method of performing an imprint process on each of a plurality of shot regions of a substrate, wherein each shot region includes at least one of at least one valid chip area and at least one invalid chip area, the invalid chip area including an inhibited area in which resin coating is inhibited, the imprint process for a shot region including both the invalid chip area and the valid chip area includes coating the valid chip area of the shot region with the resin, bringing a pattern surface of a mold into contact with the resin, and curing the resin, and in the step of coating, at least the inhibited area of the invalid chip area is not coated with the resin.

Imprint method, imprint apparatus, and article manufacturing method

A projection exposure apparatus including a projection optical system for projecting a pattern of a reticle onto a substrate, an optical characteristic detecting device for detecting a change in optical characteristic of the projection optical system, which change may result from the projection of the reticle pattern onto the substrate through the projection optical system, and a light detecting device for detecting at least one of (i) an intensity distribution of light from the reticle pattern, at a position adjacent to the reticle or adjacent to an imaging plane on which the reticle is to be imaged, and (ii) an intensity distribution of the light from the reticle pattern, at a position adjacent to a pupil plane of the projection optical system, wherein the optical characteristic detecting device is arranged to detect the amount of change in optical characteristic in accordance with the intensity distribution detected by the light detecting device.

Projection exposure apparatus including an optical characteristic

A scanning exposure apparatus includes a first movable stage being movable while carrying a first object thereon, a second movable stage being movable while carrying a second object thereon, a projection optical system for projecting a pattern, a control system serviceable to scan the first and second movable stages in a timed relation and relative to the projection optical system and to project a pattern of the first object onto the second object through the projection optical system, a first reference plate fixedly mounted on the first movable stage, a second reference plate fixedly mounted on the second movable stage, and a detecting system serviceable to scan at least one of the first and second movable stages to detect a relative positional relationship between alignment marks of the first and second reference plates to thereby determine a scan direction of one of the first and second movable stages.

Exposure apparatus and method wherein alignment is carried out by

An alignment method and apparatus is disclosed wherein, in one exposure process, alignment of a semiconductor substrate may be performed and, while moving the semiconductor substrate in a step-and-repeat manner in relation to shot positions on the semiconductor substrate, a pattern of an original may be printed on the semiconductor substrate at the respective shot position, wherein the one exposure process may be performed while using a plurality of placement data each specifying positions with respect to which the semiconductor substrate is to be positioned during the step-and-repeat motion.

Exposure apparatus and exposure method

A projection exposure apparatus is disclosed for exposing a semiconductor wafer to a pattern, formed on a reticle, by projection using a projection lens system. The apparatus includes an alignment optical system disposed at a side of the wafer remote from the projection lens system. The alignment optical system is used to detect an alignment mark provided on the wafer, from the back of the wafer. In accordance with the detection, the wafer is moved so that its alignment mark is brought into a predetermined positional relation with the alignment optical system, whereby the reticle and the wafer are relatively aligned. With this arrangement, the wafer alignment mark can be detected without being adversely affected by a resist layer applied to the wafer surface. Thus, the reticle and the wafer can be aligned very accurately.

Alignment method and a projection exposure apparatus using the same

A projection exposure apparatus for projecting a pattern of a reticle upon a wafer by use of a projection lens system, is disclosed. The apparatus is arranged so that a mark illuminating light is projected upon the wafer from between the projection lens system and the wafer and not by way of the projection lens system. The light diffracted by an edge of a wafer alignment mark is photoelectrically detected by way of the projection lens system, whereby an electrical signal corresponding to an image of the alignment mark is obtained. On the basis of the detected signal, the wafer is aligned with the reticle. This arrangement allows detection of the alignment mark without being affected by a photoresist applied to the wafer surface. Thus, the reticle-to-wafer alignment can be made accurately. Also, a novel and unique alignment method is disclosed. The disclosed method assures high-accuracy reticle-to-wafer alignment.

Projection exposure apparatus

A device for controlling the shape of a surface of a plate-like member such as a semiconductor wafer, includes support for supporting the plate-like member from a reverse surface thereof, a holding system for holding a portion of the reverse surface of the plate-like member on the support, and a control for controlling a pressure in a closed space which is related, when the plate-like member is supported by the support, to a portion of the reverse surface of the plate-like member other than the first-mentioned portion, such that the pressure in the closed space is changeable to be increased or decreased as compared with an initial pressure in the closed space when the plate-like member is supported by the support, to control deformation of the plate-like member to thereby control the surface shape of the plate-like member.

Growing community of inventors

Utsunomiya, Japan

Fumio Sakai