Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Mikio Iwata

Kazuo Watanabe

Shinkichi Ohkawa

Toyohiko Hiyoshi

Masanori Suzuki

Takao Kariya

Masaru Ohtsuka

A polishing apparatus for polishing optical components and mechanical parts requiring a high surface precision, such as lenses and mirrors, by pressing a running tape to such component.

Polishing method with error correction

Disclosed is a stage device suitably usable in a semiconductor microcircuit device manufacturing exposure apparatus for printing a pattern of a mask on a semiconductor wafer, for supporting and positioning the wafer with respect to plurality of directions. The device includes two plate members coupled to each other with a predetermined distance maintained therebetween. Each plate member has formed therein X, Y and .theta. stages defined by plural cutout grooves. Each stage is resiliently supported by a leaf spring functioning portion formed in the plate member. A Z stage for displacing the wafer in the Z direction is mounted to an outer circumferential part of one plate member, and a measuring mirror operable in combination with a laser interferometer is provided as a unit with the Z stage. Any motion of each stage can be controlled on the basis of the measurement made by using this mirror. The structure of the stage device ensures high precision and high rigidity and, therefore, the Z axis can be set substantially horizontally. Consequently the stage device is suitably applicable to an exposure apparatus to be used with an SOR ring.

Stage mechanism

Polishing apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Ibaraki, Japan

Mikio Iwata