Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Ichiro Ishiyama

Hiroshi Sato

Kazuo Takahashi

Akiyoshi Suzuki

Masao Kosugi

Shuichi Yabu

Shunzo Imai

Minoru Kaneta

An alignment device for aligning a reticle and a wafer with the aid of a projection lens system for projecting an integrated circuit pattern of the reticle onto the wafer, wherein a light beam from the wafer is passed throught the projection lens and is directed by way of an objective lens to a spatial filter to detect a positional relation between the reticle and the wafer. According to the position of an optical axis of the objective lens relative to an optical axis of the projection lens and according to the telecentricity of the projection lens, the spatial filter is displaced relative to the optical axis of the objective lens, whereby a particular component of the light beam from the wafer is positively extracted out, without being affected against by displacement of the objective lens for the alignment operation.

Alignment device

An apparatus for irradiating a first object so as to achieve at least one of alignment between the first object and a second object and transfer of a pattern of the first object onto the second object. The apparatus includes an optical device disposed in the path of the irradiating beam to correct or prevent any change in the optical path length depending on the thickness of the first object.

Pattern transfer apparatus

A sheet-like member, such as a reticle, mask or wafer, has alignment marks, which are staggered about a pattern area thereof. The arrangement of the alignment marks is effective to enhance the degree of alignment and also to avoid undesirable overlapping of the reticle mark and the wafer mark.

Sheet-like member having alignment marks and an alignment apparatus for

In a mask aligner, the actual element pattern of a mask is transferred onto a resist applied to the surface of a wafer, while the alignment pattern of the mask is not transferred onto said resist. That is, the line width of the alignment pattern of the mask is a line width which is not transferred to the wafer. If the pattern of the mask is formed so that the line width of the alignment pattern is thin as compared with that of the actual element pattern, the exposure amount in the alignment pattern portion on the resist applied to the surface of the wafer becomes excessive due to the diffraction phenomenon and thus, the alignment pattern of the mask is not transferred onto the wafer.

Growing community of inventors

Kawasaki, Japan

Ichiro Ishiyama