Nikon Corporation

Hisatsune Kadota

Nobutaka Magome

Naoyuki Kobayashi

Hiroaki Takaiwa

Yasuyuki Sakakibara

Norio Kaneko

Yoichi Kasahara

A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes a movable member having a substrate holder and a surface disposed adjacent to the substrate holder, the surface capable of positioning under a projection optical system. A liquid immersion system has a supply path and a recovery path. The liquid immersion system supplies the liquid to a space between the projection optical system and the surface via the supply path and recovers the supplied liquid of a liquid immersion area formed under the projection optical system via the recovery path. A controller stops a supply of the liquid to the space under the projection optical system by the liquid immersion system on receipt of a signal indicating the occurrence of an abnormality. The abnormality causes a possibility of leakage due to at least a part of the supplied liquid not being recovered via the recovery path and outflowing from the liquid immersion area.

Exposure apparatus, method for producing device, and method for controlling exposure apparatus

An exposure apparatus (EX) exposes a substrate (P) by projecting an image of a pattern on the substrate (P) via a projection optical system (PL) and a liquid (). The exposure device (EX) has a liquid supply mechanism () which supplies the liquid () between the projection optical system (PL) and the substrate (P). The liquid feeding mechanism () stops the supply of the liquid () when abnormality is detected. This suppresses influence to devices and members in the periphery of the substrate caused by leakage of the liquid forming a liquid immersion area, thereby realizing satisfactory exposure processing.

An oscillation degree measuring apparatus measures the fixing state of an object to be measured as a numerical value of the degree of oscillation and comprises an ultrasonic exciter for generating ultrasonic waves which shock the object and exciting oscillations, an oscillation detector for detecting the oscillations of the object and converting the oscillations into electrical signals, a band amplifier for extracting a signal element of a predetermined frequency band including a resonant frequency of the object from the detected signals from the oscillation detector, a smoothing circuit for smoothing the signals amplified by the band amplifier, an A/D converter for converting the signals smoothed by the smoothing circuit into digital signals, a control device for operating the A/D converter a plurality of times every time a predetermined time passes, and a data processor for finding an average value of a plurality of digital data obtained by the A/D converter and calculating the degree of oscillation based on the average value.

Growing community of inventors

Hachioji, Japan

Hisatsune Kadota