Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Masahiro Morisada

Hiroshi Itoh

Hiroaki Takeishi

Naoki Kawamata

Yoichi Kubota

Mikio Sato

Shinji Shinnaka

Katsuhiro Fujii

A stage control apparatus for controlling a stage on which a substrate can be placed and moved generates a target value relating to a vertical direction of the stage based upon substrate surface position information that corresponds to unevenness of the surface of the substrate and generates a drive command signal of the stage based upon a deviation signal between the target value generated and a measured position of the stage. A target frequency is decided upon a spatial frequency possessed by the unevenness of the substrate surface. In order to generate the drive command signal, use is made of a signal obtained by amplifying a component of the target frequency of the deviation signal.

Stage control apparatus and method, stage apparatus and exposure apparatus

An active damping apparatus for damping vibration due to driving of a stage and/or counter-mass mounted on an isolation table in an exposure device for the manufacture of semiconductor devices has a setting unit for selecting the stage and/or the counter-mass to drive and setting a control mode according to what is to be driven. The apparatus further has a control input switch that sets up a control loop for inputting control target values for driving the stage and/or the counter-mass to an isolation table controller so as to offset the drive reaction torque generated by the movement of the stage and/or counter-mass.

Active damping apparatus, exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method

A stage alignment apparatus includes a first moving member which moves in a first direction, a second moving member which moves in a second direction different from the first direction, a stage which is slidably supported by the first moving member and the second moving member and is guided in the first and second directions, a first control section which controls a posture of the first moving member in a third direction, the third direction being a direction rotatable about an axis substantially perpendicular to the first and second directions, and a second control section which controls a posture of the second moving member in the third direction on the basis of a signal which controls the posture of the first moving member in the third direction.

Stage alignment apparatus and its control method, exposure apparatus, and semiconductor device manufacturing method

A supporting apparatus includes a supporting member configured to support a movable member, an acceleration sensor configured to detect acceleration of the supporting member, an actuator configured to drive the supporting member, a memory configured to memorize offset data for the acceleration sensor, an offset unit configured to offset an output of the acceleration sensor in accordance with the offset data in the memory, a discrimination unit configured to discriminate whether the offset data should be renewed or not on the basis of an output of the acceleration sensor, and a renewing unit configured to renew the offset data on the basis of the result of the discrimination made by the discrimination unit.

Anti-vibration technique

An anti-vibration system includes a supporting member for supporting a driving mechanism, an acceleration sensor for detecting acceleration of the supporting member, a driving unit for driving the supporting member, a storing unit for memorizing offset data to be used for offsetting an output of the acceleration sensor, an offset unit for offsetting an output of the acceleration sensor in accordance with the offset data memorized in the storing unit, a control unit for producing a driving signal in relation to the driving unit, on the basis of an output of the offset unit, a renewing unit for renewing the offset data during a non-driving period of the driving mechanism, on the basis of an output of the acceleration sensor, a discrimination unit for discriminating whether the offset data should be renewed or not, during the non-driving period of the driving mechanism, on the basis of an output of the acceleration sensor, in which the renewing unit renews the offset data in response to an affirmative discrimination result of the discrimination unit, in which the discrimination unit performs discrimination again to the offset data renewed by the renewing unit to verify the offset data, and a notifying unit for notifying disorder provided that a negative discrimination result is not obtained after the discrimination is made a predetermined number of times by the discrimination unit.

A stage alignment apparatus includes a first moving member which can move in a first direction, a second moving member which can move in a second direction different from the first direction, a stage which is slidably supported by the first moving member and the second moving member and is guided in the first and second directions, a first control section which controls a posture, in a third direction different from the first and second directions, of the first moving member, and a second control section which controls a posture, in the third direction, of the second moving member on the basis of a signal which controls the posture of the first moving member. The second control section controls the posture of the second moving member on the basis of a signal which controls the posture of the first moving member filtered by a predetermined filter.

An active damping apparatus including an isolation table mounting a stage and a counter-mass, an isolation table controller operatively connected to the isolation table for supporting the isolation table and adjusting a position and an attitude of the isolation table, a setting unit operatively connected to the controller and adapted to select a combination of the stage and/or the counter-mass to be driven and to set a drive control mode according to what is to be driven, and a control input switch operatively connected to the setting unit and adapted to select a control loop that inputs into the isolation table controller a control target value for adjusting the drive of that which is to be driven according to the drive control mode selected by the setting unit. The active damping apparatus damps vibration by driving the stage and/or counter-mass mounted on the isolation table so as to offset a drive reaction torque and a counter-mass movement moment.

A stage control apparatus for controlling a motion of a stage. The apparatus includes a filter unit which eliminates a resonance frequency component contained in an input signal and outputs a control signal for controlling a motion of the stage, a generating unit which generates a frequency spectrum of a motion signal concerning a motion of the stage, a calculating unit which calculates coefficients of the filter unit based on the frequency spectrum, and a setting unit which sets the coefficients calculated by the calculation unit as the coefficients of the filter unit.

Stage control apparatus, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method

An anti-vibration apparatus includes a table, a pneumatic spring for applying a force to the table, an electromagnetic actuator for applying a force to the table, and a first generator which generates a driving signal for the electromagnetic actuator based on at least one of a target position and a target speed with respect to a movable object on the table.

Active anti-vibration apparatus and exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method using the same

A position control apparatus which controls a position of a stage. The apparatus includes an input device for inputting a reference locus for the stage, the reference locus including a group of scanning sections, each of which includes an acceleration section, a settling section associated with a provisional settling time, and a section for constant speed scanning, the stage settling to a constant speed in each settling section, a storage medium storing information regarding actual settling times, each of which corresponds to each scanning section, a correction device for correcting the reference locus on the basis of the information on the actual settling times, and a driving device for moving the stage in accordance with the reference locus corrected by the correction device.

Scanning type exposure apparatus, position control apparatus, and method

In a scanning type exposure apparatus, throughput is increased by omitting an unnecessary scanning period for settling. The scanning type exposure apparatus includes an exposure unit for exposing a substrate by projecting a pattern by a strip of light, an exposure control unit which turns on and off the exposure operation by the exposure unit, a designation value generator for designating a chip to be scanned and exposed next and a scanning speed, a reference position generator for generating a reference position of the pattern and a reference position of the substrate in accordance with the designation, and a position controller for controlling the positions of the pattern and the substrate on the basis of the reference positions. The reference position generator obtains a settling time for each chip by referring to a table storing predetermined settling times between the pattern and the substrate corresponding to each chip on the substrate and scanning speeds, and generates the reference positions of the pattern and the substrate for each chip on the basis of the settling time when performing exposure operation.

A positioning device and method includes a motor having a rotation axis, a driver for driving the motor on the basis of control information, a detector for detecting position information of the rotation axis of the motor, and a digital signal processor for performing an operation on the control information in accordance with the position information detected by the detector.

Device and method comprising a motor and/or a digital signal processor,

In an adaptive apparatus for adaptively adjusting parameters in a system, the parameters of the system are adjusted in accordance with an integral relationship. At that moment, one or both of a scalar and a matrix which depend on time are used as gains. Furthermore, adjustment in accordance with a proportional relationship is used together. Also in this adjustment, one or both of a scalar and a matrix which depend on time are used as gains.

Adaptive apparatus

Disclosed is a servo control system, which controls the position of a recording and/or reproducing head at the desired track on a record medium, comprising an actuator for moving the head relative to the track, a positional deviation detector, a controller for outputting the control signals for the actuator in such a manner that the head is put in the desired position relative to the track, a component for applying disturbance signals to the output of the controller, and a component for adjusting parameters of the controller which determines the correlation of the transfer characteristics at each frequency.

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Tochigi, Japan

Masahiro Morisada