Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Minoru Yoshii

Noriyuki Nose

Seiji Takeuchi

Masanobu Hasegawa

Yukichi Niwa

Kenji Saitoh

Kyoichi Miyazaki

Shigeyuki Suda

Toshihiko Tsuji

Hiroyasu Nose

Koichi Sentoku

Masakazu Matsugu

Takahiro Matsumoto

Eigo Kawakami

Mitsutoshi Ohwada

Ryo Kuroda

Naoto Abe

Masayoshi Sekine

Hideki Ina

Akiyoshi Suzuki

Jun Tokumitsu

Yasuo Ogino

Takashi Satoh

Masayuki A Suzuki

Hiroshi Matsuda

Kenji Saito

Kunihiro Sakai

Hisaaki Kawade

Ken Eguchi

Haruki Kawada

Yoshihiro Yanagisawa

Akihiko Yamano

Isao Harigaya

Hiroyuki Kimura

Toshiaki Kondo

Yuko Morikawa

Takashi Baba

Takako Watanabe

Shunichi Uzawa

Toshimitsu Kawase

Koh Ishizuka

Hiroshi Maehara

Kenji Yamazoe

Tetsuharu Nishimura

Michio Kohno

Takeshi Baba

Yoshinori Ohsaki

Eiichi Fujii

Tetsuzo Mori

Tetsuo Sueda

Yukihiro Inoue

Seiya Miura

Hiroshi Osawa

Noriaki Ohguri

Yumiko Ohsaki

Seiji Mishima

Toshimitsu Kawasa

Yoshimichi Okada

An OCT apparatus includes, in addition to a first light source that changes a wavelength of light that is emitted, a second light source that emits light having a particular wavelength. The OCT apparatus is formed so that, when light having the particular wavelength is emitted from the first light source, the light emitted from the second light source is detected by a second optical detector.

Optical coherence tomography apparatus and method

An exposure apparatus includes an illumination optical system configured to illuminate a reticle, a projection optical system configured to project a pattern of the reticle onto a substrate, a polarization adjuster configured to independently adjust each polarization state of plural areas in an effective light source distribution used to illuminate the reticle, a polarization measurement unit configured to measure a polarization state of light that has passed the polarization adjuster, and a controller configured to independently control each polarization state of the plural areas via the polarization adjuster based on a measurement result of the polarization measurement unit.

Exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method

A phase measuring apparatus for measuring phase characteristics of a film applied onto an object to be measured includes a shearing interference system for providing incident light onto the object or light reflected on the object with shearing interference, a detector for detecting shearing interference information, and a computing unit for calculating the phase characteristics of the film based on the shearing interference information.

Phase measuring method and apparatus for measuring characterization of optical thin films

Phase measurement apparatus for measuring characterization of optical thin films

A position detecting system includes a light source device for providing coherent light, an incoherence-transforming device for transforming the coherent light from the light source device, into incoherent light, an optical system for dividing the incoherent light from the incoherence-transforming device into divided light, wherein one of the divided light beams produces an intermediate image, and light from the intermediate image is directed to illuminate a target upon a surface of an object while another of divided light beams is directed to be reflected by a surface which is optically conjugate with the intermediate image, and wherein light from the target and light reflected by the conjugate surface are re-combined, an image pickup device for producing an imagewise signal corresponding to the target on the basis of the light re-combined by the optical system, wherein positional information related to a position of the target with respect to a direction along the surface of the object can be produced on the basis of the imagewise signal, and an image contrast adjusting device for adjusting image contrast of an image of a portion close to the target, as picked up by the image pickup device.

Position detecting system and exposure apparatus using the same

A wafer having a plurality of areas is subjected to multiple exposures or a stitching exposure with a plurality of mask patterns being interchanged. A plurality of wafers are sequentially exposed to the plurality of mask patterns, with one wafer being replaced with a next wafer. When the one wafer is replaced with the next wafer, the next wafer is exposed to the mask pattern last used, prior to the replacement. When one mask pattern is interchanged with a next mask pattern, an area of the one wafer, last exposed to the one mask pattern, is first exposed to the next mask pattern.

Aligning method, aligner, and device manufacturing method

An alignment method for aligning first and second objects, in an exposure apparatus for transferring a pattern of the first object onto the second object as being coated with a resist, includes a process of producing an alignment offset value related to an alignment mark forming region on the second object, after formation of the resist coating thereon, and a process of aligning the first object with the second object as being coated with the resist, in the exposure apparatus, on the basis of the offset value as produced.

Alignment method and exposure apparatus using the same

A pattern inspection system for detecting a state of a pattern formed on an object, includes a light projecting device for projecting input light on to a sensitized pattern defined on the object, a light receiving device for receiving signal light from the sensitized pattern, a processing device for detecting a change in the light by use of a signal from the light receiving device to detect the state of formation of the sensitized pattern, and a control device for changing a condition of incidence of light from the light projecting device.

Exposure apparatus

A position detecting apparatus for detecting the position of a substrate in an interval direction in which the substrate is spaced by an interval form a pattern-printing projection optical system for printing pattern on the substrate includes first and second luminous flux projecting and receiving systems and a detector. The first luminous flux projecting system projects a first luminous flux to the substrate form a direction oblique to the interval direction. The first luminous flux receiving system receives a first luminous flux after the first luminous flux is reflected form the substrate. The second luminous flux projecting system projects a second luminous flux to a reflection member secured to the bottom end of the pattern-printing projection optical system. The second luminous flux receiving system receives the second luminous flux after the second luminous flux is reflected by the reflection member. The detection detects the position of the substrate in the interval direction by detecting the position at which the first luminous flux receiving system receives the first luminous flux and by detecting the position at which the second luminous flux receiving system receives the second luminous flux.

Position sensor having a reflective projecting system and device

A detecting system for detecting positional information related to a surface of an object. The detecting system includes a variable pattern generator for projecting an arbitrary pattern image on the surface of the object, a light projecting optical system for projecting a pattern, defined by the variable pattern generator, to the surface of the object along an oblique direction, a light receiving optical system for directing light from an image of the pattern and a light receiving element for detecting the light directed by the light receiving optical system. Surface position information about the surface of the object is detected on the basis of the detection by the light receiving element.

Surface position detecting system and device manufacturing method using

A surface position detecting system for detecting a position of a surface of an object disposed opposed to an exposure system, with respect to a direction of an optical system of the exposure system, includes an irradiation device for projecting light to the surface of the object, obliquely with respect to the optical axis of the exposure system, a detecting device for detecting light from the surface of the object irradiated with light from the irradiation device, the detecting device detecting a position of the surface of the object with respect to the optical axis direction of the exposure system, and a light quantity adjusting device provided in at least least one of the irradiation device and the detecting device, for controlling the quantity of light passage.

Surface position detecting system and exposure apparatus using the same

A light source portion having an acousto-optic element produces a laser beam of two light components having a frequency difference .DELTA.w and having registered polarization directions. The laser beam is subsequently divided by a half mirror. One of the divided laser beams is detected by a photoelectric detector as reference light, and a corresponding signal is applied to a synchronism detector. The other laser beam is projected by a scanning optical system to the surface of, e.g., an original to be examined to scan the same. At the position on the surface irradiated by the scanning light spot, the laser beam is modulated at a beat frequency .DELTA.w on the basis of optical heterodyne interference. A synchronism detector detects a signal corresponding to the scattered light from a particle or defect on the surface being examined, in synchronism with the frequency of the reference light, whereby the particle or defect can be detected with a good signal-to-noise ratio.

Optical inspection method and apparatus including intensity modulation

A detecting system for detecting a surface position of an object, includes a light source, a first grating having a light collecting function, wherein the first grating is illuminated with light from the light source, a second grating having a light collecting function, a first optical system for imaging the first grating onto the object in a direction oblique to the surface of the object, a second optical system for re-imaging the image of the first grating, on the surface of the object, onto the second grating, wherein a moire fringe is produced by the second grating and the re-imaged image of the first grating, and a photodetector for detecting a position of a converged point of convergent light as produced by the moire fringe, wherein the surface position information of the object is determined on the basis of information related to the converged point position as detected by the photodetector.

Surface position detecting system and projection exposure apparatus

A state-of-formation detecting system for detecting a state of formation of a periodic pattern formed, through exposure light, upon an object with a photosensitive material applied thereto, includes a light projecting device for projecting input light onto the periodic pattern, and a determining device for receiving signal light from the periodic pattern and for detecting a change in the input light, to determine the state of formation of the periodic pattern on the basis of the change in the input light.

Exposure state detecting system and exposure apparatus using the same

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Minoru Yoshii