Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Koji Mikami

Kouichirou Tsujita

Hiroyuki Ishii

Yuichi Gyoda

Hiroto Yoshii

Tadashi Arai

Hideki Ina

Kazuhiro Takahashi

Koichi Sentoku

Youzou Fukagawa

Yuhei Sumiyoshi

Tomoyuki Miyashita

Atsushi Shigenobu

Michio Kono

Ryo Nakayama

Ryo Koizumi

Jun Moizumi

Kouki Miyano

Yoshiaki Sugimura

An exposure apparatus includes a first temperature controller for controlling a temperature distribution on an optical element of a projection optical system, and a second temperature controller for controlling a temperature distribution on an optical element of the projection optical system, wherein in a first period in which the exposure operation is executed, at least one of the first temperature controller and the second temperature controller operates to reduce a change in an aberration of the projection optical system due to the exposure operation being executed, and in a second period which follows the first period and in which the exposure operation is not executed, at least one of the first temperature controller and the second temperature controller operates to reduce a change in an aberration due to the exposure operation not being executed.

Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and method of manufacturing article

An exposure apparatus that projects a pattern of an original onto a substrate via a projection optical system and exposes the substrate is provided. The apparatus comprises an aberration correction member arranged on an optical path of exposure light between the original and the substrate, and a driver which drives the aberration correction member. The aberration correction member includes a first optical element including a first surface having a three-fold rotational symmetric aspherical shape with respect to an optical axis of the exposure light, and a second optical element spaced apart from the first optical element along the optical axis and including a second surface facing the first surface and having an aspherical shape that complementarily corrects an aberration generated by the first optical element.

Exposure apparatus and article manufacturing method

A pattern generation method for generating a pattern of a cell used to generate a pattern of a mask using a computer, includes obtaining data of pattern of the cell, calculating image of the pattern of the cell to obtain an evaluation value of the image by repeatedly changing a parameter value of an exposure condition when the mask which has the pattern of the cell is illuminated to project image of the pattern of the cell onto a substrate to expose the substrate, and a parameter value of the pattern of the cell, and determining parameter value of the pattern of the cell when the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined evaluation standard.

Pattern generation method

The present invention provides a determination method of determining exposure conditions of an exposure apparatus including an illumination optical system which illuminates a mask, and a projection optical system which projects a pattern of the mask onto a substrate, the method including a step of setting an illumination parameter for a light intensity distribution formed on a pupil plane of the illumination optical system, and an aberration parameter for an aberration of the projection optical system, and a step of determining a value of the illumination parameter and a value of the aberration parameter so that an image performance of an optical image of the pattern of the mask satisfies an evaluation criterion set for a target pattern to be formed on an image plane of the projection optical system.

Determination method, storage medium and information processing apparatus

A method being performed by a processor includes, acquiring data of patterns of a plurality of cells that include an identified pattern for which an evaluation value of an optical image falls outside a first allowable range among patterns in which each a pattern being single cell alone, creating the pattern of a mask by arranging the patterns of the plurality of cells that include the identified pattern, and evaluating an optical image of the identified pattern in the created pattern of the mask.

Method for evaluating optical image of pattern, recording medium, and information processing apparatus

A recording medium stores a program for causing a computer to execute a method of calculating a resist pattern. The method includes: a first step of calculating a light intensity distribution of an optical image formed on the resist, based on the reticle pattern and an exposure condition; a second step of convoluting, using a first diffusion length, the calculated light intensity distribution; a third step of calculating a representative light intensity from the calculated light intensity distribution or the convoluted light intensity distribution; a fourth step of correcting the convoluted light intensity distribution by adding, to the convoluted light intensity distribution, a correction function including a first function given by: where J is the distribution of the representative light intensity; and a fifth step of calculating the resist pattern based on the corrected light intensity distribution and a slice level set in advance.

Resist pattern calculation method and calculation program storage medium

A computer readable storage medium is provided, storing a computer-executable program for causing a computer to determine at least one of mask pattern and exposure condition of an exposure apparatus having an illumination optical system for illuminating a mask with light from a light source and a projection optical system for projecting the mask pattern onto a substrate. The program causes the computer to perform calculation of an image of a pattern on an object plane of the projection optical system using information about lateral shift of an image caused by the exposure apparatus, and determination of at least one of the exposure condition and the mask pattern based on a calculation result.

Storage medium storing computer program for determining at least one of exposure condition and mask pattern

A determining method includes the steps of setting a first parameter to define the shape of the plurality of pattern elements of the mask, setting a second parameter to define the effective light source distribution; and repeating the process of calculation of the image of the mask pattern and calculation of a value of an evaluation item while varying the value of the first parameter and the second parameter to thereby determine the effective light source distribution and the mask pattern, wherein parameters of pattern elements are set as one parameter by using a value of an index representing the proximity effect.

Method of determining mask pattern and exposure condition, storage medium, and computer

A method of determining a pattern of a mask to be used in an exposure apparatus. The mask is arranged on an object plane of a projection optical system. The method includes calculating a value of a first evaluation function used to evaluate a cost of drawing a provisional pattern on a mask blank to manufacture the mask, calculating a value of a second evaluation function used to evaluate an image of the provisional pattern, which is formed on an image plane of the projection optical system when a mask having the provisional pattern is arranged on the object plane, and changing the provisional pattern. The calculations are repeated, and the provisional pattern is determined as the pattern of the mask, when the value of the first evaluation function meets a first predetermined standard and the value of the second evaluation function meets a second predetermined standard.

Pattern determining method, pattern determining apparatus and storage medium

The present invention provides a determination method of determining a light intensity distribution to be formed on a pupil plane of an illumination optical system in an exposure apparatus, the method including a step of setting a cutline used to evaluate an image of a pattern of a mask, which is formed on an image plane of a projection optical system, and a target position of the image, and a step of determining an intensity of an element light source such that the position of a midpoint between edges of the image of the pattern of the mask on the cutline from a calculated image comes close to the target position, thereby determining the light intensity distribution.

Method, apparatus and medium for determining the intensity distribution formed on a pupil plane of an illumination optical system

The present invention provides a method of generating a database of effective light source shapes including a generation step of generating an initial database representing an effective light source shapes corresponding to a plurality of conditions settable for an illumination optical system, a measurement step of setting an arbitrary condition for the illumination optical system, and measuring an effective light source shape, a calculation step of calculating a difference amount between an effective light source shape when each of the plurality of conditions is set for the illumination optical system and the effective light source shape included in the initial database, and a correction step of correcting the effective light source shapes included in the initial database using the difference amounts and compiling the corrected effective light source shapes into an actual database.

Effective light source shape database generation method, optical image calculation method, recording medium, exposure method, and device fabrication method

An exposure method comprises setting an exposure condition using a value of an exposure parameter when plural types of patterns are transferred onto a substrate. The method of determining a value of an exposure parameter comprises calculating an optical image, formed on an image plane upon illuminating a pattern on an object plane, for each of combinations of plural values of an exposure parameter and plural values of at least one of an exposure amount and a defocus amount, calculating, for each of the plural values of the exposure parameter, a deviation between a contour of a target optical image and a calculated contour of the optical image, in each of the plural types of patterns, and determining a value of the exposure parameter, at which a maximum value of the deviations among the plural types of patterns is minimum, as a value of the exposure parameter when exposing the substrate.

Recording medium storing program for determining exposure parameter, exposure method, and method of manufacturing device

A method includes setting a target pattern to be formed on a substrate using a reticle, obtaining a first pattern using the reticle and a first illumination condition, calculating, a second illumination condition under which the target pattern is transferred onto the substrate using the reticle, and a third illumination condition under which the first pattern is transferred onto a substrate using the reticle, using mathematical models each of which defines the relationship between an illumination condition and a virtual pattern transferred onto a substrate using the illumination condition, determining a fourth illumination condition, obtained by adding the difference between the calculated second illumination condition and third illumination condition to the first illumination condition, as the illumination condition, and transferring the pattern of the reticle onto the substrate by illuminating the reticle using the determined illumination condition.

Method of transferring pattern of reticle, computer readable storage medium, and method of manufacturing device

A method comprises determining an exposure condition by executing a process including computing an image formed on an image plane under the current exposure condition while changing the exposure condition, and evaluating a line width of the computed image, and exposing the substrate under the determined exposure condition, wherein the determining includes, computing a simplified evaluation value of the computed image, changing the exposure condition and executing the process in the changed exposure condition, after evaluating the computed image if the simplified evaluation value satisfies an allowable value, and changing the exposure condition and executing the process in the changed exposure condition without evaluating the computed image if the simplified evaluation value does not satisfy the allowable value.

Exposure method and memory medium storing computer program

An exposure apparatus for exposing a pattern of a reticle onto a plate using a light from a light source and an optical system includes a measuring part for obtaining polarization information of the light that has passed the optical system, the polarization information including at least one of polarized light intensities, a ratio between the polarized light intensities, a degree of polarization, and a retardation of two orthogonal directions that are both parallel to the optical axis, and a controller for controlling, based on a measurement result by the measuring part, at least one exposure parameter of the light source and the optical system.

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Nikko, Japan

Koji Mikami