Nikon Corporation

Hisashi Nishinaga

Osamu Tanitsu

Mitsunori Toyoda

Ikuo Hikima

Tsuneyuki Hagiwara

Yasushi Mizuno

Masahiro Nakagawa

Naonori Kita

Nozomu Emura

Hirohisa Tanaka

Norio Komine

Tomoyuki Matsuyama

Takehito Kudo

Kenichi Muramatsu

Kouji Muramatsu

An exposure apparatus includes an optical member that can be provided on a stage. The optical member has a first surface contacting a liquid when moved to face a projection system, and a second surface contacting a gas and transmitting light having come from the projection system via the liquid and the first surface. The optical member is configured such that at least a large-angle ray of the light, which has an angle with an optical axis of the projection system sufficiently large to undergo total reflection at an end surface of the projection system when the liquid is absent, travels from the projection system to the second surface without passing through gas. The second surface transmits the large-angle ray, which is received by the light-receiving surface.

Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and method for producing device

An exposure apparatus irradiates a substrate with light via a projection system and liquid, and includes a stage that moves below the projection system, and a light-receiving element having a light-receiving surface. An optical member provided on the stage has a first surface contacting the liquid when moved to face the projection system, and a second surface contacting a gas and transmitting light having come from the projection system via the liquid and the first surface. The optical member is configured such that at least a large-angle ray of the light, which has an angle with an optical axis of the projection system sufficiently large to undergo total reflection at an end surface of the projection system when the liquid is absent, travels from the projection system to the second surface without passing through gas. The second surface transmits the large-angle ray, which is received by the light-receiving surface.

A part of exposure beam through a liquid via a projection optical system enters a light-transmitting section, enters an optical member without passing through gas, and is focused. The exposure apparatus receives the exposure light from the projection optical system to perform various measurements even if the numerical aperture of the projection optical system increases.

A part of exposure beam through a liquid(LQ) via a projection optical system(PL) enters a light-transmitting section(), enters an optical member() without passing through gas, and is focused. The exposure apparatus receives the exposure light from the projection optical system to perform various measurements even if the numerical aperture of the projection optical system increases.

An illumination optical apparatus is able to quickly perform switching between polarization states of illumination light in a first region and in a second region. The illumination optical apparatus of the present invention for illuminating a surface to be illuminated on the basis of light from a light source is provided with an optical integrator of a wavefront division type arranged in an optical path between the light source and the surface to be illuminated and including a plurality of wavefront division regions; and a polarization changing member for changing a polarization state of at least one beam out of a beam incident to a first region in the wavefront division regions of the optical integrator and a beam incident to a second region in the wavefront division regions of the optical integrator.

Illuminating optical apparatus, exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method

An illumination optical system for, when installed in an exposure system, realizing a suitable illumination condition by varying the polarized state of the illumination light according to the pattern characteristics of the mask while suppressing the loss of the intensity of the light. The illumination optical system has a light source unit for supplying a linearly polarized light for illuminating surfaces to be illuminated therewith, and a polarized state changing device for changing the polarized state of the illuminating light from a predetermined polarized state to a nonpolarized state and vice versa. The polarized state changing device is arranged in the optical path between the light source unit and the surfaces to be illuminated. The polarized state changing device can be removed from the illumination optical path and has a depolarizer for selectively depolarizing the incident linearly polarized light.

Illumination optical system, exposure apparatus, and exposure method with polarized state detection result and adjustment

Illumination optical system, exposure apparatus, and exposure method with polarized state fluctuation correcting device

Illumination optical system, exposure apparatus, and exposure method with polarized switching device

An exposure apparatus which expose a photosensitive layer on an object with light via a mask having a pattern to be transferred onto the photosensitive layer, includes an illumination optical system having plural optical elements provided along an optical axis substantially perpendicular to a plane on which the pattern is placed, and which include an optical integrator from which the mask is illuminated with the light through a part of the plural optical elements. The apparatus also includes a filter device having a rotatable filter element provided between the optical integrator and the plane, and having a transmittance distribution in a predetermined area. Light from the optical integrator passes through a portion in the predetermined area. Light from the filter element has a variable intensity distribution different from that of the light incident on the filter element from the optical integrator, and made variable by rotating the filter element.

Exposure apparatus and exposure method capable of controlling illumination distribution

An exposure apparatus radiates an exposure light beam from an exposure light source onto a reticle via an illumination optical system including a first fly's eye lens, a second fly's eye lens, a lens system, a blind, and a condenser lens system, and it projects an image of a pattern on the reticle onto a wafer via a projection optical system. An illumination characteristic is measured by using an evaluation mark plate on a reticle stage and a spatial image-measuring system provided for a wafer stage. The states of the second fly's eye lens and the lens system are adjusted by the aid of a driving unit on the basis of the measured value. A concentration filter plate, which is formed with a pattern of a predetermined transmittance distribution, is rotatably arranged in the vicinity of a conjugate plane with respect to an image plane between the second lens system and the blind. The angle of rotation of the concentration filter plate is controlled so that the uneven illuminance is corrected. The illumination optical system can be adjusted correctly for a short period of time. It is possible to improve the uniformity of the exposure amount distribution.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Hisashi Nishinaga