Nikon Corporation

Nippon Kogaku K.k.

Masaomi Kameyama

Kazuo Ushida

Naomasa Shiraishi

Shigeru Hirukawa

Koichi Matsumoto

Takashi Mori

Kyoichi Suwa

Masato Shibuya

Hiroshi Ooki

Yusuke Taki

Toshihiko Ozawa

Masaya Komatsu

Norio Kaneko

Takeshi Suto

Yoshifumi Tokoyoda

Shinichi Nakamura

Hiroyuki Tsuchiya

An immersion lithography system includes a wafer stage, a lens for projecting an image onto a wafer located on the wafer stage, an immersion fluid supply for supplying immersion fluid between the lens and the wafer, and a purge fluid conveying device for conveying about the supplied immersion fluid a purge fluid saturated with a component of the immersion fluid.

Exposure apparatus and device fabrication method

This exposure system projects a pattern image onto a substrate via a projection optical system and a liquid to expose the substrate, with a space between the projection optical system and the substrate filled with the liquid. The exposure system is provided with a vaporization preventing unit for preventing the vaporization of the liquid.

Upon fixing fine particulate active element members, which are carbon nanotube, rod-shaped semiconductor crystal, or the like, in an electronic device at predetermined positions thereof respectively, a method for producing an electronic device includes: dispersing the fine particulate active element members in a dielectric liquid and filling the liquid in a space between a process-objective substrate and a mask which is placed opposite to the substrate and which has predetermined pattern electrodes formed therein; and applying a predetermined voltage to the predetermined electrodes to concentrate the fine particulate active element members at positions which correspond to positions of the pattern electrodes, respectively. In this state, a light is irradiated to the substrate and the fine particulate active element members in the liquid so as to fix the fine particulate active element members to the substrate by a photochemical reaction. Thus, a high-performance electronic device using carbon nanotubes or rod-shaped semiconductor crystal can be manufactured at low cost.

Method for producing electronic device and electronic device

A method of manufacturing a display device permits use of a high-performance and flexible substrate, without need for a high-temperature process. In a manufacturing method of an active matrix type display device having a plurality of display elements arrayed two-dimensionally, materials (SR-SR) of active elements are not formed by direct deposition or the like on a substrate (PL) forming display elements, but the active elements are formed by separately forming materials of a semiconductor or the like and distributing them on the substrate. The active element materials distributed at locations except for desired locations are subjected to a process of substantially removing electrical continuity thereof so as to prevent undesired electrical continuity.

Display device manufacturing method and display device

A projection exposure apparatus includes illuminating optical means for illuminating a projection negative, and projection optical means for projection-exposing the projection negative illuminated by the illuminating optical means onto a substrate, the illuminating optical means including light source means for supplying exposure light, annular light source forming means for forming an annular secondary light source by the light from the light source means, and condenser means for condensing the light beam from the annular light source forming means on the projection negative, and is designed to satisfy the following condition:&#x2153;&#x2266;d/d&#x2266;&#x2154;,where dis the inner diameter of the annular secondary light source, and dis the outer diameter of the annular secondary light source.

Projection exposure apparatus

A projection-exposing apparatus has a mask which has a pattern formed with a pitch P,, an illuminating optical system for applying illuminating light from a light source to the mask, a projection optical system for projecting an image of the pattern onto a photosensitive substrate, and a deflecting grating member formed with a pitch P,disposed between the light source and the pattern of the mask for generating diffracted light. The pitch P,of the deflecting grating member is defined in the relation P,&equals;2P,. The diffraction grating member is remote from the pattern on the mask by a distance &Dgr;t, where &Dgr;t&gE;P,/2NA,, NA,being the numerical aperture of the illumination optical system.

Photo-mask and method of exposing and projection-exposing apparatus

The present invention relates to a projection exposure method and an exposure apparatus for projecting a pattern on a photo-mask through a projection optical system onto a predetermined photosensitive material. The photosensitive material is a nonlinear photosensitive material in which the effective light intensity distribution is nonlinear to the intensity of incident exposure light. Further, multiple exposure is made with plural patterns having a certain lateral shift therebetween, or multiple exposure is made with shifting the position of an identical pattern, whereby multiple exposure is effected with patterns different in intensity distribution on the photosensitive material. A high-resolution pattern can be formed over the resolution limit of projection optical system by the above arrangement.

Exposure method and apparatus

A projection-exposing apparatus has a mask which has a pattern formed with a pitch P.sub.R, an illuminating optical system for applying illuminating light from a light source to the mask, a projection optical system for projecting an image of the pattern onto a photosensitive substrate, and a deflecting grating member formed with a pitch P.sub.G disposed between the light source and the pattern of the mask for generating diffracted light. The pitch P.sub.G of the deflecting grating member is defined in the relation P.sub.G =2P.sub.R. The diffraction grating member is remote from the pattern on the mask by a distance .DELTA.t, where .DELTA.t .gtoreq.P.sub.G /2NA.sub.IL, NA.sub.IL being the numerical aperture of the illumination optical system.

Projection-exposing apparatus with deflecting grating member

A projection exposure apparatus includes illuminating optical means for illuminating a projection negative, and projection optical means for projection-exposing the projection negative illuminated by the illuminating optical means onto a substrate, the illuminating optical means including light source means for supplying exposure light, annular light source forming means for forming an annular secondary light source by the light from the light source means, and condenser means for condensing the light beam from the annular light source forming means on the projection negative, and is designed to satisfy the following condition:

A projection exposure apparatus is provided with an illumination optical system for illuminating a reticle having a predetermined pattern and a projection optical system having a predetermined numerical aperture for projecting the predetermined pattern of the reticle illuminated by the illumination optical system onto a wafer surface. The projection optical system is arranged so that, with respect to the focusing of an image of the reticle onto the wafer surface, spherical aberration, which depends on the numerical aperture of the projection optical system, shows a positive tendency corresponding to overcorrection in third-order spherical aberration and a negative tendency corresponding to undercorrection in fifth-order spherical aberration.

A projection exposure apparatus is provided with an illuminating optical system for illuminating a reticle having a predetermined fine pattern, a projection optical system for projecting the pattern of the reticle onto a wafer, and diaphragm means so constructed as to vary the aperture of a diaphragm of the projection optical system, wherein means for receiving information on the pattern present on the reticle, and means for determining a diaphgram aperture capable of eliminating the high-order diffracted light generated by the pattern of the reticle according to information as stated above and controlling the aperture of variable diaphragm means of the projection optical system, are provided.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Masaomi Kameyama