Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Keiji Yoshimura

Kunitaka Ozawa

Noriyasu Hasegawa

Hiroshi Kurosawa

An apparatus comprises a controller configured to generate a first list of measurement points arranged symmetrically with respect to a center of a shot region along a direction of scanning at a predetermined pitch, and a control by the controller includes a first control which causes a measurement device to measure a position of a surface with respect to each measurement point included in the first list, and a second control which causes the measurement device to measure the position with respect to each measurement point included in a second list obtained by excluding, from the first list, at least one of a measurement point with respect to which measurement is performed last in a first shot region and a measurement point with respect to which measurement is performed first in a second shot region next to the first shot region.

Exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method

With respect to each of a plurality of shots on a substrate, a line or surface is calculated which approximates a plurality of positions of the surface of the substrate detected by a detector with respect to a plurality of places, and the difference between the position of the surface detected by the detector and the position of the line or surface in the direction of the optical axis of a projection optical system is calculated with respect to each of the plurality of places. With respect to each of the plurality of places, the differences are averaged over the plurality of shots to determine an offset value.

Exposure apparatus

An exposure apparatus includes a measurement device for measuring a distortion of an image of a reticle formed on a substrate by scanning exposure, a calculation device for calculating a position compensation parameter for each distortion, by separating the measured distortion into a symmetrical component and an asymmetrical component, and a control device for controlling scanning of either the reticle or the substrate based on the position compensation parameter calculated by the calculation device.

Exposure apparatus, semiconductor device manufacturing method, maintenance method of exposure apparatus, and semiconductor manufacturing factory

An exposure apparatus includes an illumination system for illuminating, with pulse light, a reticle having a pattern formed thereon, a reticle stage for scanning the reticle, a projection system for projecting the pattern onto a wafer, a wafer stage for scanning the wafer, an interface into which information related to the reticle is inputted and a controller for changing illumination conditions on the basis of the information inputted to the interface. The reticle is illuminated with the pulse light while the reticle and the wafer are scanned, by which the pattern of the reticle is transferred to the wafer sequentially.

A method of exposing a substrate to a pattern of a reticle by synchronously scanning the reticle and the substrate in a direction relative to a slit-shaped illumination area which is formed on the reticle. The method includes steps of providing a reticle on which first and second patterns are formed along the direction, with a space therebetween, exposing a substrate to the first and second patterns of the reticle under different exposure conditions in one scanning process and changing over the exposure conditions when the illumination area exists in the space on the reticle during the one scanning process.

Exposure method and apparatus

An exposure apparatus includes a light source for providing pulse light, a mask scanner for scanning a mask having a pattern, a wafer scanner for projecting a wafer onto which the pattern is to be projected and a light emission period determining device. The mask scanner and the wafer scanner scan the mask and the wafer in a timed relation so that the mask is illuminated while superposing portions of an illumination region defined by the pulse light and being narrower than the pattern such that the pattern is lithographically transferred onto the wafer. The light emission period determining device determines a period of emission of the pulse light, prior to an actual exposure process, wherein the emission period can be changed in accordance with a required precision of an integrated exposure amount.

An exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method having structure and steps for projecting, for scan exposure of a substrate through an original, a plurality of light pulses from a pulse light source to the substrate through the original, changing an emitted light intensity of light pulses from the pulse light source during the scan exposure, and changing timing of light emission from the pulse light source during the scan exposure, whereby both the emitted light intensity and the timing of light pulses may be controlled during the scan exposure.

Exposure apparatus and method using pulsed light and changing means to

An exposure apparatus includes a mask scanning device for scanning a mask on which a pattern is formed, a projection optical system for projecting the pattern on the mask onto a wafer, a wafer scanning device for scanning the wafer, onto which the pattern is projected by the projection optical system, an illuminating device for illuminating the mask in an illumination area narrower than the pattern by synchronously scanning the mask and the wafer relative to each other, using the mask scanning device and the wafer scanning device, so as to expose and transfer the pattern on the wafer, a detection device for detecting information regarding exposure before exposing and transferring the pattern onto the wafer by the illuminating device and for producing detection results, and a display for displaying exposure information obtained from the detection results. Also disclosed are methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices, for example, using such an exposure apparatus.

Exposure apparatus and method of manufacturing a device using the same

A scanning projection exposure apparatus includes an illumination optical system for illuminating an original with pulse light, a projection optical system for projecting a pattern of the original, illuminated with the pulse light, onto a substrate, a moving device for moving the original and the substrate relative to each other, a position measuring device for measuring a relative positional relation between the original and the substrate, and a controller for discriminating whether the positional relation measured by the position measuring device is in a predetermined range. The discrimination is performed within a period after the moving device initiates the relative movement of the original and the substrate and before the illumination optical system initiates the projection exposure with the pulse light. The controller stops the projection exposure with the pulse light from the illumination optical system when the positional relation is discriminated as being out of a predetermined range.

Scanning projection exposure method and apparatus

An output control method for an excimer laser includes providing plural light pulses, and changing an emission interval for the light pulses, wherein the emission interval is controlled so that an average laser output of each light pulse becomes higher than that when the emission interval is unchanged.

Growing community of inventors

Utsunomiya, Japan

Keiji Yoshimura