Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Koichi Sentoku

Hideki Ina

Takahiro Matsumoto

Satoru Oishi

Takehiko Suzuki

Kenji Saitoh

Noriyuki Nose

Minoru Yoshii

Kenji Saito

Junichi Seki

Nobuhito Suehira

Hiroshi Osawa

Hiroshi Maehara

Keiko Chiba

Toshihiko Tsuji

Masanobu Hasegawa

Takeshi Miyachi

Yoshinori Miwa

Gaku Takahashi

Noriyasu Hasegawa

Hiroyasu Nose

Hiroto Yoshii

Seiji Takeuchi

Yoshinori Ohsaki

Tetsuzo Mori

Atsushi Takagi

Koji Mikami

Tomoyuki Miyashita

Hiroshi Morohoshi

Osamu Morimoto

Shigeki Ogawa

Yoshiaki Ohtsu

Yoshiaki Sugimura

The present invention provides a method for calibrating an encoder which includes a scale and a light receiving unit configured to receive light reflected by the scale, and detects a change in relative position between the scale and the light receiving unit, the method comprising a measurement step of measuring a deformation amount of a surface shape of the scale, a specifying step of specifying, based on a measurement result in the measurement step, a range which includes a portion of a surface of the scale, where the deformation amount exceeds a threshold, and within which a detection value of the encoder is corrected, and a determination step of determining a correction value for correcting the detection value of the encoder within the range specified in the specifying step.

Calibration method, measurement apparatus, exposure apparatus, and method of manufacturing article

A lithography apparatus for performing pattern formation on a substrate includes a stage configured to hold the substrate and be movable, an optical system configured to irradiate the substrate with an energy beam for the pattern formation, and a controller configured to set an arrangement of first and second marks for overlay inspection, which is variable with respect to a first substrate for condition setting, and control the stage and the optical system so that first processing for forming the first mark on the first substrate without the pattern formation and second processing for forming the second mark on the first substrate with the pattern formation are performed based on the set arrangement.

Lithography apparatus, lithography method, and method of manufacturing article

A method includes a first step of forming a circuit pattern and an alignment mark on a substrate and a second step of measuring a position of the alignment mark and positioning the substrate. The alignment mark includes a first linear pattern arranged on one side of a first straight line, a second linear pattern arranged on the other side of the first straight line, a third linear pattern arranged on one side of a second straight line, and a fourth linear pattern arranged on the other side of the second straight line. The first step includes determining total number of the third and fourth linear patterns to be formed and total number of the first and second linear patterns to be formed based on required precisions in directions along the first and second straight lines.

Method of manufacturing device, and substrate

An imprint apparatus for performing alignment between a mold and a substrate and imprinting a pattern of the mold to a layer of the substrate. A holder holds the mold. A stage holds the substrate opposite to the mold held by the holder. A microscope, including an image pickup device, detects a first alignment mark formed in the mold, via a first image pickup area of the image pickup device, and detects a second alignment mark formed in the substrate, via a second image pickup area of the image pickup device. The first and second image pickup areas do not overlap with each other. A contrast of signals obtained by the image pickup device is adjusted with respect to each of the first and second image pickup areas, and the alignment is performed by changing relative positions of the holder and the stage based on first information about a deviation of the detected first alignment mark from a predetermined position in the first image pickup area and second information about a deviation of the detected second alignment mark from a predetermined position in the second image pickup area.

Alignment method, imprint method, alignment apparatus, and position measurement method

A lithography apparatus includes a first measurement device which measures a position of a mark on a substrate with light, a second measurement device which measures a position of a reference mark on a stage with a charged-particle, a detector which detects the position of the stage in a first direction parallel to the axis of a projection system and a second direction perpendicular to this axis, and a controller. The controller determines a charged-particle beam, in which the angle, with respect to the first direction, at which it is incident on the reference mark falls within a tolerance, and obtains a baseline for the first measurement device from the position of the reference mark measured by the second measurement device using the determined charged-particle beam and the position of the reference mark measured by the first measurement device.

Lithography apparatus and device manufacturing method

A reticle manufacturing method of the present invention comprises the steps of holding a reference mask blank by a reference chuck to measure a surface shape of the reference mask blank as a first surface shape, holding the reference mask blank by a reticle chuck of the exposure apparatus to measure a surface shape of the reference mask blank as a second surface shape, holding the electron beam drawing mask blank by the reference chuck to measure a surface shape of the electron beam drawing mask blank as a third surface shape, calculating a difference between the measurement values of the first surface shape and the second surface shape as a first deference value, calculating, as a forth surface shape, a surface shape of the electron beam drawing mask blank held by the reticle chuck on the basis of the first deference value and the measurement value of the third surface shape, and drawing the pattern on the electron beam drawing mask blank on the basis of the forth surface shape.

Reticle manufacturing method, surface shape measuring apparatus and signal processor

The present invention provides a position detection apparatus including a first obtaining unit configured to obtain imaging characteristics of an imaging optical system for a plurality of light beams, having different wavelength with each other, of the light having the wavelength width, a second obtaining unit configured to obtain optical images of a target object for the plurality of light beams, a restoration unit configured to restore optical images of the target object for the plurality of light beams by correcting, deterioration in the obtained optical images of the target object attributed to the imaging optical system, based on the obtained imaging characteristics of the imaging optical system, and a generation unit configured to generate an optical image of the target object for light including the plurality of light beams by synthesizing the restored optical images of the target object for the plurality of light beams.

Position detection apparatus, position detection method, exposure apparatus, and device fabrication method

A surface shape measurement apparatus is configured to measure a surface shape of an object to be measured, and includes a beam splitter configured to split white light from a light source into two light beams, a pair of prisms each configured to increase an incident angle of each light beam that has been split by the beam splitter and directed to the object or a reference surface, each prism having an antireflection part that is formed at a period of a wavelength of the white light or smaller and has a moth-eye shape, a superimposition unit configured to superimpose object light from the object with reference light from the reference surface and has passed the second prism, and to generate white interference light, and a Lyot filter configured to discretely separate the white interference light for each of a plurality of wavelengths.

Surface shape measurement apparatus and exposure apparatus

A pattern transfer apparatus transfers an imprint pattern formed on a mold, provided with an alignment mark, to a resin material on a substrate, provided with an alignment mark. A first image pickup device obtains an image of an object positioned at a first object position. A second image pickup device obtains an image of an object positioned at a second object position. The second object position is more distant from the alignment mark of the mold than the first object position. An optical system forms an image of an object positioned at the first object position and an image of an object positioned at the second object position. Alignment is performed based on first and second information obtained about positions of images of an alignment mark of a reference substrate and an alignment mark of the substrate, to transfer the imprinting pattern to the resin material.

Pattern transfer apparatus, imprint apparatus, and pattern transfer method

A method for calculating an offset of an exposure dose and a focus position in an exposure apparatus that exposes a substrate via an original includes the steps of obtaining information of a shape of a pattern formed on the substrate using the exposure apparatus, calculating a shift amount between a critical dimension contained in the information of the shape of the pattern and a reference value of the critical dimension, and calculating an offset of the focus position based on the information of the shape of the pattern, and calculating the offset of the exposure dose based on the shift amount and the offset of the focus position.

Method and program for calculating exposure dose and focus position in exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method

A measurement method for measuring a distortion of a projection optical system that projects a pattern, used by an exposure apparatus that exposes the reticle pattern onto an object to be exposed, the measurement method includes the steps of a first exposing step for exposing a mark pattern onto the object to be exposed, the mark pattern having a mark on or near an optical axis of the projection optical system and a mark beside the optical axis, and being arranged at a position of the reticle, a second exposing step for only exposing a mark on or near the optical axis of the projection optical system in the mark pattern, measuring step for measuring a shape of the mark formed on the object to be exposed via the first and second exposing steps, and calculating step for calculating the distortion of the projection optical system from the shape of the mark measured by the measuring step.

Measurement method and apparatus, exposure apparatus, and device fabrication method

At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to an exposure apparatus which includes a chamber, an evacuating device configured to evacuate the chamber, a sensor configured to measure at least any one of the position and the height of a substrate, and a cover for hermetically sealing at least part of the sensor.

Exposure apparatus

An imprint apparatus, comprising a first holder for holding a mold having an imprint pattern; a second holder for holding a workpiece to which the imprint pattern is transferred; a first illumination system for irradiating a mark for determining a position of the mold and a mark for determining a position of the workpiece with light; a first and second optical systems for imaging the marks for the mold and workpiece at a first and second observation points respectively; an imaging optical system; a first and second image pick-up devices for observing the marks for the mold and workpiece respectively; and at least one of a first drive mechanism for moving the first image pick-up device while following movement of the first observation point and a second drive mechanism for moving the second image pick-up device while following movement of the second observation point.

Imprint apparatus and imprint method including dual movable image pick-up device

An imaging optical system for imaging a pattern of an object plane onto an image plane includes a first imaging optical system for imaging at a first imaging position, the first imaging optical system having a magnification &#x3b1; in a vacuum atmosphere, and a second imaging optical system for imaging at a second imaging position, the second imaging optical system having a magnification &#x3b2; in the vacuum atmosphere, wherein when an environment in which the imaging optical system is placed changes from the vacuum atmosphere to an air atmosphere or vise versa, a direction of the first imaging position that moves along an optical axis is opposite to a direction of the second imaging position that moves along the optical axis.

Imaging optical system and exposure apparatus

There is provided an exposure method for exposing a pattern on an original form onto an object through a projection optical system. The exposure method includes the steps of obtaining, for each piece of information of resist applied to a first object, a correlation among an exposure dose for exposing the first object, a focus state of the first object in the projection optical system, and a pattern shape formed on the first object exposed with the exposure dose and the focus state, acquiring information of resist applied to a second object different from the first object, determining an exposure dose for exposing the second object, and a focus state of the second object in the projection optical system, based on the correlation obtained by the obtaining step and the information of the resist applied to the second object acquired by the acquiring step, and transferring the pattern formed on the original form onto the second object in accordance with the exposure dose and focus state determined by the determining step.

Growing community of inventors

Tochigi, Japan

Koichi Sentoku