Nikon Corporation

Other

Hideji Goto

Masamitsu Yanagihara

Tomoyuki Watanabe

Noritsugu Hanazaki

Kei Nara

Tomohide Hamada

Seiji Miyazaki

Kazuaki Saiki

Masaichi Murakami

Tsuyoshi Narabe

Junji Hazama

Muneyasu Yokota

Masanobu Ito

Yoshiyuki Katamata

Osamu Nakamura

An exposure apparatus has a field stop, disposed in a position conjugate to the reticle, for regulating an illumination area on the reticle. The field stop is constructed of two aperture members including light shielding portions, rectangular first and second apertures and light reducing portions formed at sides of these apertures. The exposure apparatus also has a drive system for shifting a position of the light reducing portion. and relatively moving the two aperture members during the projection.

Exposure apparatus and field stop thereof

An exposure apparatus has a field stop, disposed in a position conjugate to a reticle, for regulating an illumination area on the reticle. The field stop is constructed of two aperture members including light shielding portions, rectangular first and second apertures and light reducing portions formed at sides of these apertures. The exposure apparatus also has a drive system for shifting positions of light reducing portions and relatively moving the two aperture members during the projection.

To improve the focus accuracy during alignment and to improve the alignment accuracy even if a substrate has warpage, during alignment, an approximate focus plane is obtained by using only the detection results at focus points of focus sensors located near the ends of a substrate, close to alignment points, and without using the detection results at focus points of two central focus sensors. The auto-focus operation is performed by using the above operation results. As a result, a substrate is driven so as to be adjusted to the approximate focus plane during alignment.

Exposure method and apparatus including focus control

A scanning exposure apparatus is arranged to illuminate a mask, to project an image of the mask through a projection optical system onto a photosensitive substrate, and to move the mask and the photosensitive substrate relative to the projection optical system, thereby effecting exposure of an entire surface of the mask on the photosensitive substrate, and the exposure apparatus comprises a position detector which detects a relative positional relation between the mask and the photosensitive substrate; a memory which stores positional information obtained by the position detector; a position correcting device which corrects the relative positional relation between the mask and the photosensitive substrate, based on the positional information read out from the memory device; and a controller which makes the position detector detect the relative positional relation between the mask and the photosensitive substrate while the mask and the photosensitive substrate are carried past a projection region of the projection optical system to an exposure start position, and makes the position correcting device correct the relative positional relation between the mask and the photosensitive substrate, based on the positional information read out from the memory, while the mask and the photosensitive substrate are stopped at the exposure start position and/or during the exposure.

Scanning exposure apparatus and method

An exposure apparatus includes a projection optical system for projecting a pattern on a mask onto a photosensitive substrate and a measuring unit for measuring distances between the mask and the projection optical system at a plurality of positions within a surface of the mask. The position of the photosensitive substrate with respect to the projection optical system is changed on the basis of a plurality of the distances measured by the measuring unit.

Exposure apparatus and method having a measuring unit for measuring

An exposure apparatus adapted for use in manufacture of semiconductor devices or substrates for liquid crystal display panels, comprises an illumination systems for irradiating a first object with a light beam from a light source; a projection optical system for projecting the image of a pattern on the first object, illuminated by the light beam, onto a second object; and a light attenuation device provided in the illumination system and adapted to gradually decrease the amount of light in the peripheral portion of the image of the pattern, projected onto the second object, as the distance from the center of the image increases.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Hideji Goto