Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Nobuhiro Kodachi

Yuichi Osakabe

Michio Kohno

Seiya Miura

Katsutoshi Natsubori

An alignment system for aligning a reticle having a pattern and an alignment mark with a photosensitive substrate to which the pattern of the reticle is to be transferred, is disclosed. The alignment system includes a movable substrate stage for holding the substrate, and a light-transparent plate having a mark for relative positioning with respect to at least one of the reticle and the substrate stage, wherein positioning of at least one of the reticle and the substrate stage is performed on the basis of the mark provided on the light-transparent plate.

Alignment system and projection exposure apparatus

An exposure apparatus for transferring a pattern of an original, having an original mark, onto a substrate having a substrate mark, through a projection optical system. The apparatus includes a movable stage, having a stage mark, for holding the substrate, an optical member having first and second marks and being held fixed with respect to the projection optical system, a first position detecting system having a detection center and for detecting (i) a relative position between the detection center and the stage mark, and (ii) a relative position between the detection center and the substrate mark, and a second position detecting system for detecting (i) a relative position between the stage mark and the first mark of the optical member, and (ii) a relative position between the original mark and the second mark of the optical member. The original can be aligned with respect to the projection optical system on the basis of the relative position of the original mark and the second mark as detected by the second position detecting system. A base line offset can be determined on the basis of the relative position of the detection center and the stage mark as detected by the first position detecting system, and the relative position of the stage mark and the first mark as detected by the second position detecting system. The substrate can be aligned with respect to the projection optical system on the basis of the thus determined base line offset and the relative position of the detection center and the substrate mark as detected by the first position detecting system.

An alignment system for aligning a reticle, having a pattern to be transferred and a mark for alignment, with a photosensitive substrate to which the pattern of the reticle is to be transferred by exposure. The alignment system includes a substrate stage being movable while holding the photosensitive substrate thereon, the substrate stage having at least one mark for relative position detection, and a light transmissive flat plate-like member separate from the reticle and disposed between positions of the reticle and the substrate when the reticle and the substrate are placed to be aligned with each other. The plate-like member has a mark for relative position detection with respect to the reticle and another mark for relative position detection with respect to the substrate stage, which marks are provided separately.

A method and apparatus for inspecting a surface state are used to examine first and second surfaces, e.g., two surfaces of a glass substrate on which a device pattern is formed, or one surface of a glass substrate and a pellicle for preventing attachment of foreign particles. When the first surface is illuminated from the first surface side while the second surface is illuminated from the second surface side, the first and second surfaces are illuminated with polarized light beams polarized in directions orthogonal to each other, respectively, and reflectively scattered light from the first surface is detected through an analyzer which intercepts the same polarized light as the polarized light illuminating the second surface. The S/N ratio of examination of the first surface is thereby improved.

Method and apparatus for inspecting a surface state

An inspecting apparatus, for inspecting a surface state of an article to be inspected, includes a zone detecting system for detecting a zone which can cause strong scattering of light; a surface state detecting system for detecting the surface state of the article, the surface state detecting system including a light source for projecting an inspecting light beam to the article, a light scanning mechanism for relatively moving the article and the inspecting light beam so that the article is scanned with the inspecting light beam, and a photoelectric converter for detecting light from the article scanned with the inspecting light beam by the light source and the light scanning mechanism; an inspecting device for receiving an output signal from the photoelectric converter and for inspecting the surface state of the article; and a sensitivity controller for controlling the detection sensitivity of the surface state detecting system on the basis of the detection by the zone detecting system, such that when the inspecting light beam scans the zone, the detection sensitivity of the surface state detecting system is relatively reduced.

Growing community of inventors

Utsunomiya, Japan

Nobuhiro Kodachi